Footwear, photobooths, and floating flowers in Florence
One of the major benefits of living in Valencia is the ease and affordability of travel throughout Europe, so when we learned Shannon's nephew had plans to visit Italy with some friends, we decided to spend a long weekend in Florence and meet up with them on their day trip from Rome. The last time we were in the quintessential Renaissance city of Botticelli, Galileo, and Brunelleschi's Duomo was when we traveled there after meeting up with Shannon's niece during her study abroad in Rome in 2016.
Since we'd previously covered most of the typical tourist spots, this time our journey was centered around gelato sampling, shoe shopping, visits to the Uffizi Gallery and Piazzale Michelangelo, plus loads of serendipitous events we never could've imagined.
Our first walk around the neighborhood led us to the Piazza San Spirito open air flea market, two Otisopse shoe store locations, and an old-school photo booth. Anyone remember these? We spent time making goofy faces behind a flimsy curtain, waiting four minutes for an oversaturated strip of black-and-white images, and creating precious memories. Interestingly enough, we happened upon two other photo booths (who woulda thought?!) and discovered that although the photo quality improved with each one, the nostalgia factor of the first outshone the others.
We also stumbled upon Palazzo Strozzi which featured one of the most mesmerizing art exhibitions we've ever seen. The gorgeous Renaissance courtyard was an idyllic setting to experience floating "flowers" (resembling jellyfish/umbrella-like sculptures) opening and closing as they moved along taut wires while illuminating and aligning with hypnotic music. You can watch here.
The exhibition represents the natural phenomenon of nyctinasty, the process by which some species of plants and flowers close overnight and reopen at dawn as a form of self-defense and to preserve their resources. We could've watched for hours. In fact, we went back the morning we were leaving for one last look. Unfortunately, after going through one cycle of rising and falling, all movement stopped. While we stood waiting patiently for the next series of movements to begin, a museum worker positioned a sign near the exhibition indicating there'd been a malfunction. Confirmation we have to grab each moment of life as it comes, never knowing what the future holds.
One evening as the sun was setting, we paused to watch a gentleman perched atop a cherry picker stringing lights on an enormous Christmas tree in the Piazza del Duomo, and we waved like crazy hoping he'd recognize our childlike delight. He waved back while testing the lights and made sure we were watching. As we walked away with big smiles, he approached us with a cutting from the tree, a gigantic smile, and gleefully exclaimed in Italian, "Auguri!" We later discovered "auguri" is used to wish someone well, meaning "all the best", or "best wishes".
In the same spirit, we’re wishing y'all auguri this holiday season and sending lots of love from Valencia. 🇮🇹🍕🍨🖼️👞🎄✨💖
