Brush with Greatness in Florence

After a few days in Rome, the trio headed north to see some of the sights in the north of Italy.  The first stop was the car rental place in Rome.  As our group was traveling with three adults and luggage, they opted for the large car.  Now, keep in mind, this is European large, not American large.  What's the difference?  It's difficult to quantify with the metric system and all.  Perhaps we can let one picture do the explaining...

When facing forward, Mark's shoulders touched both sides of the Micra.

Eventually the group and the luggage was stuffed into the Nissan Micra (seriously, it's called a "Micra"). Then the group drove north to Firenze, which is what the Italians call Florence.  It begs the question, why do we call it 'Florence' when they call it 'Firenze'?  Or 'Italy' when they say 'Italia'?  'Spain' vs. 'Espana'?

...but I digress.  The next stop on this monster trip across the continent was in Florence/Firenze.  This city is known as one of the most beautiful and culturally-significant cities in Italy - if not in all of Europe.

The Cathedral of Florence (pictured above) is one of the first major buildings whose construction was the product of the Renaissance.  Later, the trio visited the Accademia Gallery where the original "David" by Michelangelo is on display (no photos, please).  This Gallery requires visitors to have entrance reservations, so our trio arranged to visit the gallery at 2 pm.  Unfortunately, due to Mark's choice of driving the "scenic route" rather than the ... well, "route," the group did not arrive at the Accademia until after 5 pm.  Were they going to have to settle for looking at a replica of the David instead?

Replica of Michelangelo's David.  Also, there is a statue in the background.

If this had been Rome, the trio was certain that they would not have been granted admission.  However, this is not Rome, this is Firenze/Florence.  People are much nicer in Firenze/Florence.  The man at the door asked the trio to wait, looked at their reservation document for between 2 and 4 seconds, and let them in.  (Chalk up 10,000 'Awesome' points for the Accademia Gallery.)

Firenze/Florence (let's just call it 'Florence' from now on) has many outstanding and well-stocked museums.  But there is actually quite a bit more to the city.  Anne and Bren inspected the wares of some of the street vendors in the city square where the vendor explained how to determine that all of the products in the square were fakes... except his products of course - which were totally legit.

Bren hides behind the vendor while Anne is shown the difference between real and imitation handbags.

So that's about it for Florence....  Let me see if I can remember anything else that happened there.... oh, well there was one more thing.



On this trip the trio had several close encounters with famous people, even celebrities.  First, Mark noticed a bust at a museum in Rome.

Mark is excited anytime his head is NOT the largest one in the room.

As you can tell by the unibrow and sullen expression, this is a bust of Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco.

Two brows.  Divided in the middle, please, Joe.

At that the same museum, Anne stole a kiss from Jasper Beardley, most famous for his line "That's a paddlin."

And if the entire trip had been limited to art, travel, seeing new things, eating new foods and seeing these two celebrities - that would be a pretty good trip.  Right?  Right.

But this trip took it to the next level.  While in Florence, Anne, Bren and Mark were walking and noticed a large entourage carrying television equipment (cameras, lights, boom microphones, etc.).  They noticed the group, but dismissed it and went to find a nice dinner.  Later, while eating some pretty darn good pasta, they discussed who the TV crew may have been following.  An Italian celebrity shopping in Florence?  A news story? Something much less important and potentially silly?  Ding! Ding! Ding!  We have a winner.

While eating on the second floor of a restaurant near a window, Anne, Bren and Mark noticed the entourage rounding a corner.  Who could it be?

Snooki, the Situation, and ... some of the others.

The cast of Jersey Shore.

Seriously.  Jersey Shore.

For those of you who are not aware of who this is: good for you.  Be proud of yourselves for having successfully navigated your life while avoiding this pothole of American culture.  For those of you who are aware of Jersey Shore, you may already know that these four people (and probably some others) have a show on MTV where they run around, get drunk, say stupid things, get more drunk and fight.  As you would imagine with a show described that way - the show was a wild break-out hit.

The show was an enormous initial success, but after the novelty wore off, so did the ratings.  Apparently, now as a stunt to increase the show's ratings, the cast is filming the newest season of the show in Florence.  The cultural capital of Italy meets .... Snooki.  Not exactly putting our best foot forward, America.

But maybe that assessment is too harsh.  Anne and Mark have not actually watched an episode of the Jersey Shore, but are familiar with the character of "Snooki" (that is the short, orange woman with the brown-ish hat) from other representations in pop culture.  For example....

Bobby Moynihan does a Snooki impression on Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live.

Michelangelo, shopping and reality TV: sampling pretty much everything Florence had to offer.