nightswimming: trip day 10

Trip Day 10: Violet's Birthday!!!

I don't always sleep well away from home. Trips like this especially stretch me beyond my daily rituals and comforts and even when I'm exhausted, I can have trouble sleeping. I'm sure that's normal-ish when you're a half day out of your regular time zone, but I was grateful for the hours of sleep I did get. Nevertheless, I was awake at 5 am and soon I was out running along the Arno as the sun rose on Florence.

I'm not even going to complain about the views. And also, there was some excitement to keep me awake. It was VIOLET'S BIRTHDAY!!!! I love celebrating other people's birthdays but I was sort of limited here. I couldn't flood the place with balloons and make a big banner like I do at home. After my run, I stopped by the coffee shop and grabbed some sweet treats and coffee for Violet. Then I burst into the room singing happy birthday. Pretty sure I scared her.

Violet was in good spirits, despite my wake up call, and we quickly met the group and set out for a walk back up the river to the Uffizi Gallery. We saw David last night, but today we would see more Michelangelo along with some Da Vinci, Botticelli, Caravaggio and more. It was going to be a good day.

I was on portrait duty for the whole trip but I also made a point to get lots of selfies with Violet.

I'm decidedly not a photographer, but I can take a decent photo. Violet admitted this begrudgingly.

It was a real treat for me to be in Florence, Italy with Violet on her birthday. It was also really cool to have so many of my current and former students and my peers be so kind and loving to Violet on her birthday. It meant a ton to her when my school people complimented her and showed her kindness. Kennedy and Alayna chipped in to buy her some nice earrings and Sandy gave her a cool journal. She was really happy.

I was happy too. Of course because of her birthday, but also because...."Spring"...

"The Birth of Venus"...

Da Vinci...

and Caravaggio. The Uffizi was a bit confusing at times and we had trouble locating the Medusa. When we found it, we sent this to K and A.

and 5 minutes later they sent this to us. Good times.

I look at art like an artist. I look in wonder at some things, but mostly look to see how things were physically done. Then I move on. I don't stay in museums too long. Violet was happy about this. She was also very generous with time and patience when I wanted to go look at something again or take extra long with something like The Birth of Venus. She kept saying that it was fun to see me so excited about things. After we escaped the art, we walked a bit farther away from the hotel because I overheard someone saying that the Michelangelo park/garden thing offered the best views of the city.

It also offered some good birthday photo opps. Oh and there were baby ducks and fish.

But yeah, they weren't lying. Great views of the city of Florence. We also had really good skies and clouds for this whole trip. I think it sprinkled on us just once for about 5 minutes in Athens. Otherwise, we had perfect weather.

This was the first place we found the REAL gelato. The kind covered up in metal bins and not in a pretty display case. Also a really good tip provided to us. Definitely better quality gelato.

We lost K and A at some point walking around in the city but we found some really cool places to visit. Apparently this is a store Violet has always wanted to visit and we had no idea there was one here. We just happened upon it like all good things from this trip.

Freakin' McDonald's. Violet joked about McDonald's since we walked through the first airport. I hate fast food and I haven't been to McDonald's in several years. I told her there was no way I was going to eat crappy food in Greece and Italy. There was one not far from our hotel in Athens and somewhere along the way, K and A told her they would make sure she got McDonald's for her birthday. Fine. It was a weird experience. She got her happy meal and I ordered a doughnut. K and A got cheese fries and pizza pockets. Very strange. The doughnut wasn't terrible.

As we continued exploring, we were shocked to find an Alexander McQueen store. We went to his exhibit in Columbia last year and Blue, Violet and I all love his work.

The ladies inside knew we were not there to buy but they were very kind and conversational with us. We talked about the exhibit of his work and she shared a lot of information about the current and future directions of the company.

Violet got some Tik Tok recommendations for restaurants and we let her pick where she wanted to eat. She chose Le Cappelle Medicee, just outside of a beautiful church. It was nice and the food was good.

On our walk back to the hotel, we found a cool little hang out spot and we sat on the loft and people watched.

The sky was gorgeous and this was our view walking back.

But did you even have a good birthday if you didn't get kicked out of a private garden party? The guy with the tie is telling us we have to leave. Maybe you shouldn't leave doors open if you don't want people to come in.