Well, I got interrupted again with a quick overnight trip to the in law's so we could swap out our snow tires for the regular ones. While I wasn't too excited about the drive, it's always nice to go to Niigata, and we hadn't seen Chieko's parents for a little while. We also have the luxury of time at the moment, which we won't in a week after work starts up again.
I usually embrace the furniture free environment at Chieko's parent's house. While we use a bed in our place, I do like sleeping on a futon now and then. And nothing is better in winter than tucking under the kotatsu and sitting on the tatami floors while sipping tasty Japanese beer. But I'm all sorts of achy after our marathon trip yesterday and today. I was already a tad tender since returning to the gym this week after a 3 week absence. Sitting in the car for 3 hours yesterday didn't improve things, nor did the kotatsu or the beer upon arrival last night. My usually comfortable futon seemed to be missing a layer, which tenderized me for a few more hours under the kotatsu this morning and afternoon, followed by another 3 ours in the car getting back to Kanazawa. I went to the gym this evening which, paradoxically, usually alleviates my aches and pains, and if nothing else I have a chiropractic appointment tomorrow.
Chieko and I have been having a bit of circular argument for the last 20 or 60 minutes. She wants to clean my ears, and I refuse. My argument is simple: I don't trust her digging into my ears. She is an unabashed klutz, and I have a phobia of things being prodded into my ears even by people licensed to do so. She says I should trust her. I offered her the choice of being distrusted or lied to, because if I said I trusted her it would not be true. We went around in all sorts of circles, deciding that if she can go a week without having any accidents, she can have at my ears. If she does something goofy, the one week clock is reset. This could go on for a while.
But where were we? I think I was complaining about Italy, right? I won't continue in that vein too much more because Italy did have a few redeeming moments, and I'd rather focus on those if I can remember them.
Our next stop in Italy was Florence, which was a bit like getting punched in the chest when you stepped off the train. It was much more hectic than Venice had been, and felt a bit more seedy upon first impressions. While I was by no means enamored with Florence, any moaning must come with the caveat that I came down with a nasty cold that I'm still trying to rid myself of while we were there, and nothing short of palm trees and turquoise water would have made me feel better. Given those conditions, the rain, grime, and hideously long lines in Florence weren't filling me with thoughts of healing.
Because of my fragile condition we ended up staying in Florence for two nights rather than the one we had planned, but it gave us a chance to get out and see a few sights once I sort of emerged from my pity party. One of the highlights was the gigantic Duomo (which, in bit of complete crap photography, you can barely see on the left in the first picture. The whole building is freaking enormous, but in addition to offering hardly a glimpse of the Duomo, my picture also lacks any sense of scale, so there you go. It was big.). We had to climb lots stairs in narrow hallways which were fun with a cold medicine buzz, but opened up onto cupola that was miraculously not crowded and afforded wonderful views of the greater Florence area.
The other major site for us was the famous (apparently, though I'd never heard of it) Uffizi Gallery. It was here that I saw a woman checking out some paintings, with her dog easily within peeing range of priceless masterpieces, and where I also saw WAY to many pictures of Jesus. No religious judgement here but, seriously, I don't they had pictures of anything other than Jesus, and only about 3 scenes from his life at that. I was dying for a painting of a friggin boat, or flower, or something that didn't have angels John the Baptist (or Jesus!). I will say that most of the artists painted cool looking halos on everyone though.
From Florence, with me on the mend, we were off to Rome with high hopes and rainbow. Silly us.
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