Florence
So it’s been a minute since we’ve been to Florence. In our first trip overseas, Caitlin and I did London, Paris, Rome, Venice, Florence. So it was whirlwind and it was nuts and a bit overwhelming. I pretty much threw a fit in Paris, standing in the freezing rain outside the Eiffel Tower, telling Caitlin I was ready to go home. Not my proudest moment.
Even worse: I didn’t even care about Florence or Venice. I wanted to see the Sistine Chapel in Rome and that’s it. When we headed to the Colosseum in Rome, I literally told Caitlin something along the lines of, “Meh, it’s a big old building…I’ve seen it in books.” (Full disclosure, this was pretty much my attitude about everything and I’m ashamed and embarrassed and feel bad about myself and don’t deserve good things ever again).
Which brings us to Florence. As, per usual with me, I was sick on this trip, I was kinda over everything. I was stoked to be in Italy, but being sick makes things not as fun, and I didn’t really have any desire to be in Florence. The main reason we went was to see the David, but, as per usual with the old me, I didn’t see the point. “Oh, cool, a statue of a dude. There are acutal REAL and LIVING people around, why do I care about some marble dude?” (Look, I’m ashamed that I was like this, I really am, and it pains me to make it public, but I must).
Which brings us to Florence. The city rules, and that’s final. It’s beautiful, and since it’s in Italy, the people are beautiful and the language is beautiful and the food rules and the gelato rules. We only had a couple days, so our main goal was to get acquainted with good sir David, which I naturally objected to.
I’m not even going to dance around this, seeing the David changed my life. It was spiritual, it was like opening a new dimension of my brain. I’m not even kidding. I remember walking down the corridor, having very low expectations, and seeing the David, which has this cool window/sunlight thing above him so he’s bathed in natural light, and my first thought was, “Oh. Now I get it.”
For me, the David is the highest thing humans have ever done. I can’t even explain how much it meant to me that day. Years of seeing it in textbooks suddenly meant nothing to me. I want my future children to feel this same way, to actually understand stuff like this. In 5 seconds, everything I’d ever learned about art and humans and creation just fit into place. Dramatic? Probably, but totally true. I am so happy Caitlin insisted we go to Florence and see the David. Of all my travel experiences, this one may have been the most profound because it literally changed my way of thinking and opened me up to the future adventures.
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GEAR
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Since this trip was 5 years ago, I truly have no idea what you should actually take. But here’s a few of our always-take-on-trips stuff:
Hotels.com gift card: Every now and then you can get $50 for $40 on Amazon, which we always do when the deal comes up. We know we’ll use it.
My Bag: As I said above, we travel LIGHT. This bag is not incredibly nice, but it has a lifetime warranty and it can cinch down to unbelievably small sizes. It’s made it through heaps of countries with no problems yet.
Space Saver Bags: These have proved invaluable on our travels. It’s amazing how small clothing can shrink down to in one of these! Highly recommended.
International Outlet Plugs: Of course, when traveling overseas you need a plug adapter. We’ve had these exact ones for at least 5 years. We’ve taken them to 4 continents and they’re still going strong. And, they’re super cheap and have everything you need all in one, so you don’t have to bring a bunch of different parts. Highly recommended.
Double Wall Plug USB Charger: Probably not essential but with so many things needing charged (both phones, camera, laptop, etc), it’s nice to charge 2 at once. And they charge super fast. We use at home and abroad.
Aux Cable: You probably already have a million of these. Our car had a USB that connected directly to the music, so we could charge our phones and blast tunes at the same time. The longer cable is nice so if someone is in the backseat they can still charge and control the music or navigate or browse Instagram or whatever).
MacBook Air: Since we had to travel so light, it was nice to have a tiny but powerful computer. I ran the business from the road with no problems.
