July 18: Roma, Fiuggi & Florence

I am walking through the Vatican Square. More like dragging my tired legs at the end of my own Roman holiday. I am looking at the giant Egyptian obelisk which stands in the middle of the St Peter's Square. The burning heat makes everything feel dizzy. Rising heat shimmers in the air. The giant monolith rises up into the sky, through the glare of the squinting sun, without breaking sweat once as the cool, smooth stone soars. It's hot today. A real stinker. Rome has been melting all day in this dire heat. I've finished my walk around the Italian capital and have seen all the things I've wanted to. I'll never forget the feeling of walking down past the Piazza Venezia and seeing my first glimpse of the Colloseum in the distance - hairs standing up on end sort-of-stuff. It was great to walk on and see the Circo Massimo and to imagine what it must've looked like when Ben Hur was racing around it.

On the outskirts of the surrounding suburb of Lazio is a small town called Fiuggi. Its location looked perfect for me to go off and explore both nearby Rome and Florence. I loved being there. There are two parts to Fiuggi - the old town and the new. The new is where I have been staying. The old town seems to have been happily cut off from time on top of a lofted hill. On my last night I decided to spur the trattorias and bars and head off up there.

It was quiet and dark as I walked up the thin road to the old town. Streets somehow staying upright on slippery cobblestoned hills almost pitched up at vertical angles. The night air was black, but pure enough to see bats and foxes roaming free. Up and up I went, following nothing more than an instinct that I sort of knew where I was going. I passed through narrow alleys lit in a dense coating of yellow lanterns. Old women outside homes smiling and chatting to me as I passed by. Each twist and turn I took produced three paths to take; the medieval part of town was tighter and more condensed than elsewhere. Buildings black and giant wooden doors almost ajar. I kept following my nose until I came through a square and ended up outside the town church. The Tuscan winds blew cool air through a view that was incredible. The shooting stars I saw that night were like nothing I've seen before.
If Rome is seductive, then equally so is Florence. The capital of Renaissance art, famous for its Medici family, famous for its Ponte Vecchio bridge which stands over the River Arno, famous for its cathedral, The Firenze Duomo - famous for so many things. During the middle of the day Florence can be claustrophobic - especially with the thousands of overheating tourists, but at night it is better - sumptuous, just stunning. With the air still warm, but no longer searing, streets are empty and cool. Shadows move through the silence. But there's mischief abound too; bars spill out onto the banks of the River Arno. Friends can easily make naughty new friends with beers in hand on the steps of the floodlit Cathedral. An hour of fun can turn into an entire night of revellery, and before you know it the first purple hues of dawn begin to dance upon the waters of the Arno.