Monday, June 27, 2016
Traveling in Beautiful Rome, Italy. Part 3
Welcome to Traveling in Beautiful Rome, Italy part three. Like the title states this will be the third, and final part of my Taveling in Beautiful Rome, Italy series. You can go back to Part 1 and Part 2 buy clicking. Last time I left you with a bridge ad this time I will start with a bridge, just not to one I left you with. Be patient.
In my posts about Florence, which you can read here, I said that Italy was a wonderful place for street photography. It is. When is the last time you saw a sombrero-clad Asian accordion-playing busker? I didn't think so. I honestly don't remember the name of this bridge Ponte Something or Other. There are myriad bridges and they all appear to be important in one way or another.
While I was walking across this particular bridge a man in a top had made of playing cards riding an electric bicycle passed me. Once again, not something you see every day. I photographed him as he passed me, but later discovered the purpose for his getup.
He was a street magician. I didn't catch his show, but the captive audience didn't really seem very impressed by it, so I'm going to assume it was a but dull. I give him an A for effort though.
As I strolled casually around Florence and later Rome I started to discover that Italians don't dry their clothes inside. Nowhere would this be more evident than Venice, which I believe is famous for people airing their laundry in public. It must have something to do with the size of apartments or maybe it's just cultural.
But what happens if you want to hand your clothes outside your window, like all your neighbors, but you just aren't handy enough to string up a line? You get something like what you see above. No offense to Romans, but this is white-trash or redneck ingenuity at its best, hands down. I also highly doubt the creator of this impressive display ever thought that some idiot would photograph it and later write about it. If you're still unclear, the device hanging out the window on the right is designed to be used indoors. Right, back to bridges and stuff.
The bridge here is Ponte Sant'Angelo which happens to lead to Castel Sant'Angelo. To my knowledge Castel Sant'Angelo is the only castle in Rome, surely The Holy See doesn't count as it is a church and a country without any castle that I'm aware of. The Vatican does have its own train station though, so they have that going for them. But I digress.
Castel Sant'Angelo was once the Papal fortress. If shit really hit the fan the Pope would hole up here. It was originally constructed by Emperor Hadrian to be a mausoleum for him and his family around 135 AD. It has undergone one or two "upgrades" since then and is now a museum mainly about military history. Regular readers here, is there such a thing, will realize that I couldn't not visit this place.
What you see above is the passage that leads from the castle to the Vatican. Dan Brown put it in some of his books and those books were turned into movies, so if you want to see the inside of it you'll need to enlist the help of Tom Hanks. I have no clue where this passage comes out at the Vatican or if it even actually makes it all the way there anymore, but I believe it does. The need for a Papal fortress is slightly antiquated these days. The delightful Swiss Guards seem to have everything under control.
Ponte Sant'Angleo is festooned with statues of angels. The fort itself features a statue of the Archangel Michael by Bernini sheathing his sword after smiting a plague about the land. The one above is the Angel with the Column by Antonio Raggi and it was my favorite one. At least on the outside of the castle.
This was my favorite statue at the castle. It is the original statue of Archangel Michael that topped the castle and it is a Michelangelo, just, you know, in a courtyard because. Honestly, I won't complain about the placement of this gorgeous masterpiece. When is the last time you went someplace and there was a statue by Michelangelo that you could touch and no one would care? Had I touched any of the Rodins at the National Museum in Washington D.C. I'd probably still be in jail. To me, it appeared that may of the people wandering about the courtyard where this statue was didn't have a clue about it.
Climbing off my artistic high horse and back to the castle, you can see that is has some big walls and it even has a moat in places. The photo above is a bit "streety" as there appears to be a father and son napping on the park bench on the right. You would have to enlarge the photo a lot for it to work, but I still like it.
Inside the castle there are a number of really cool chambers and passageways. Some of them I meant to photograph, but the magical 13:00 hour arrived the the place was suddenly crawling with tourists. Like packed to the rafters crawling with tourists. Like many places in Rome, or Italy for that matter, you can virtually have the place to yourself up until 13:00 then all of a sudden it's like Scotty beamed a bunch of wandering morons with their families directly on top of you.
The route around the castle takes you in a sort of spiral and you get to check out the different upper and inner levels as you go through it. It seriously doesn't look as large as it is from the outside. Add that causeway to the Vatican and it's simply huge. I assume that passage would be the first thing destroyed during an assault.
There are displays of ancient siege weapons and hand hewn cannon balls. In some places there are signs warning you that the uneven floor you are treading on was built by Hadrian so be careful. It turns out marble floors don't stand up to two thousand years of punishment so well. Who would have known?
Each of the bastions at the castle is a little different and they all have names. Some have larger, more "modern" artillery emplacements and others are clearly designed for simpler and less powerful weapons. This is a testament to the nature of construction that is fairly constant over the course of hundreds of years as weapons evolve and you need to create new structures to support them.
See, more awesome old weapons. This is a guard room that stands at the base of a drawbridge inside the castle that leads to the upper chambers. Think about that for a minute, a drawbridge inside a castle. These folks really did think of everything, except maybe how to escape. You weren't going to get choppered out like at Saigon, since choppers didn't exist and all. Maybe the plan was to hold out for reinforcements to come save you? Personally, I think if your attackers have arrived this deeply into your capital, you're screwed.
The views from the castle are breathtaking. There is even a cafe near the top where you can sit and enjoy a snack and cappuccino. If you're in Italy and not drinking cappuccino you are a heretic. You should also be wearing Ray Ban sunglasses. They force you to purchase them at the Italian border. It's just like grills in Texas, you aren't allowed admittance without one. I'm lucky I already had a pair.
Here we have another one of the amazing views from the castle, this one of St. Peter's Basilica. It also shows you how close the Castle Sant'Angelo and Basilica are to one another. It's less than a mile for sure. This wonderful view brings this post to a close, and sets you up from my next post which will be all about The Vatican. See how I've tied it all together? I'm a little impressed with myself, but that will wear off soon.
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Monday, June 13, 2016
Traveling in Beautiful Rome, Italy. Part 2
Hello again and thanks for coming back (I hope you're a repeat reader) to read part two of me traveling in beautiful Rome, Italy. If you missed the first part, Traveling in Beautiful Rome, Italy Part 1, you can read it by clicking this link.
Last time I had covered the Colosseum and was moving on to the Roman Forum. I even gave a little teaser photo at the end. So let's get right into it.
I was astounded by the sheer enormity of everything in the Roman Forum. The place itself is much larger than you think and the buildings just dwarf you. There honestly isn't a good way to depict the scale in photos. You really must stand there and feel it. That said: *I'm still working to find a new layout, right now the image you see at the top of this post is supposed to appear under here.
There, I tried to show you the size. This isn't all of it. It's maybe half. I took this photo from Palatine Hill. Palatine Hill is a giant park, some of which overlooks the Forum. For one low price you can get a ticket that grants you admission to the Forum, Palatine Hill and the Colosseum and is good for 48 hours. Seriously, doing all three of these places in one day is possible, because they are all right next to each other but either make that your entire day or break it up into two days. I did the hill and the Forum in the same day and was totally rushed though Palatine Hill worried that the Forum would close before I got to see it. The first time I saw the Forum it was closed, but I tried to walk up the hill behind it anyway.
It was the same night I took the photo of the Colosseum you can see in part one. As you can see, I maybe should have waited at the Colosseum for the sky to look like this. I got restless what can I say. Above is the gate to the Church of San Sebastiano al Palatino. I don't know much else about it, but it did make for a pretty photograph and according to Wikipedia it qualifies as being on Palatine Hill.
A few days later I finally made it into the Forum. Above you can see the view of a tiny tiny part of Palatine Hill from the Forum. The hill is huge with orchards and churches and ruins of aqueducts and all sorts of goodies even amazing views. It is one of the Seven Hills of Rome and where Romulus founded the original city of Rome.
If you search around on the Internet for like 5 seconds this photo will come up. Well, probably not this exact photo because I took it and don't have much luck getting into the top search results, but anyway a photo of this place on the hill.
Up next here we have an example of one of the amazing view from the hill. I really wish I could remember the name of this church and might do a Google Image search later to find the name. It was framed so well in the trees and made for a gorgeous view. I think it's the San Gregorio al Celio. Pretty much all the views from the hill were breathtaking, except for the Circus Maximus. I don't know why, but I just really didn't like the Circus Maximus at all, like not even a little bit. It just felt bad to be there.
At the top of Palatine Hill there are a few buildings. I really enjoyed the shadow of the lamp on this one and that is why you are looking at a photo of it now. Otherwise, there isn't much else to say about this photo. As I said, I started to rush through the hill because I was afraid that I would not be able to see all of the Forum.
Easily the first big thing you see when entering this place is the Arch of Titus. You can't miss it and it is impressive. It's supposed to be. When you kick a lot of ass and your brother is the Emperor of Rome he builds you an arch to remember you victories after you die. There are a lot of arches in what I would call a relatively small area in Rome.
The Arch of Septimus Severus is just a little ways away from the Arch of Titus, which is just a little ways from the Arch of Constantine. The cool thing about the Severus arch is that one brother had the other brother's records scratched out after assassinating his brother, brutal. I suppose when your history is carved in marble the only solution to rewrite it is to scratch it out. You look at things like this and then reflect on Shakespeare's plays and think, "wow, he was pretty tame in his portrayals." Or at least I do.
Hey look!! A cool column head, or base, photo. This is for sure much better than the one I took at the Colosseum and didn't include in my last post, the snail photo I did include is actually pretty cool. You can see a fair bit of the stuff aroud the Forum. The intersting thing is that this place was a big swamp for a few hundred years and was essentially "rediscovered." People always knew it was there, it just seems like interest was low. As an example, only the top portion of the Severus Arch was visible when the place was "rediscovered."
In this photo you can easily see the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina on the left. I completely fell in awestruck love with this temple. It is by far my favorite structure at the Forum. I don't know why, nor do I care. It so much larger than this photo can even begin to show. It seemed like each step up to the place was six feet tall. It is a building truly larger than life, right there before your eyes making you feel like an insignificant dwarf of a being. On the right is the Temple of Vesta. It is cool too, but in the "also ran" category for me compared to the Temple of Antoninus.
Behind the Temple of Vesta is the House of the Vestal Virgins. It was once an impressive building, built by Septimus Severus of surviving-son-assassinating-and-scratching-out-his-brother's-legacy fame. There are many statues in a row in this place. I think only one still has her head and you see her above. So, while these Vestal Virgins may have kept their flowers, all but one lost her head. They didn't all die virgins, after their term of service was over they were allowed to marry and it was a big deal to marry one.
The thing about the Roman Forum is that it is drastically less crowded at night -- because it's closed and all. If you do some internet searching you will see a lot of photos from this perspective. It's not a surprise, it's a good angle and view if you look really close in the background you can see the Colosseum and get a descent idea of scale. When I was visiting the Forum I saw people standing in this spot outside and was desparate to find it. I did -- duh. I even had to walk past the Arch of Janus to get here. The Arch of Janus is by far my favorite and I don't have a single photo I like of it, since it's basically in a parking lot.
Moving on from the Roman Forum I've kicked in a photo of the Pantheon. It is also quite impressive and the inside is more moving that the outside. This is a lot like the Trevi Fountain in the the sqaure in front was so insanely crowded that I had to return at night to get a photo with less that 10,000 people in it. The funny thing about the inside is that people can't quite grasp that it is a church so they make a ton of noise, like they are at a baseball game or something. As a result every once in a while a loud tone sounds and there is a voice shushes everyone and reminds the disrespectful heathens that they are in a church. Raphael is buried at the Pantheon and that is very cool.
Now we're moving on to a few more random images while I get ready to tease the last installement of Traveling in Beautiful Rome, Italy Part 2. What you see above appears confusingly random and I think it pretty much is. It is the Villa del Priorato di Malta and this line of people is waiting for a chance to peek though the freaking mail slot in the front gate. It's so popular that there is a food cart there. Honestly, I can only attribute this behaviour to the fact that there is a guide book entry describing how the garden of the Priorato is beautiful. Come on people. If there is any consolation whatsoever it is that the Priorato is on Aventine Hill.
While Rome is famous of its seven hills, and agreeable quite a lot more things, it also has its fair share of bridges which span the disgustingly green waters of the River Tiber, it really does look nasty. The teaser photo above shows a very important bridge that I will talk about it part three. The thing you will never get from this photo is that the guy in the single skull was being serenaded by the coxwain in the eight oar shell to 'O sole mio. Classic Italy. Until next time... .
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Monday, May 30, 2016
Traveling in Beautiful Rome, Italy. Part 1
Last time I was in Florence, Italy(click the link to read about it), hopping on a fast train bound for Rome. I arrived, which brings us to me traveling in beautiful Rome, Italy. This is part one of three parts. Hey! I have over 45 photos for you to look at, I have to break it up. Keep in mind there will even be a separate post about the Vatican, but I think I can keep it to just one.As I mentioned last time, you can say what you want about Italian trains but Trenitalia's high-speed trains, the Frecciarossa, scream across the countryside at over 150 mph (that's 250kph to my Eurotrash friends) and you can't even tell when you're on the train. I've gone over 150 mph before on a motorcycle, don't tell my folks, and it is a completely different experience. I will say this: If you want to go that fast, take the train.
As Stefano, my Florentinian inn keeper told me, Rome is a big city. He understated it, but his command of English, while good, might have played a roll. Rome is gigantic and there is almost no way to see all of it in one trip, unless that trip lasts a few years. I've heard people who live in Rome still haven't seen all of Rome. I believe it.
So let's not pussyfoot around and just start with the Colosseum. There is a metro entrance 50 meters away from this thing and it will give you pause when you come from the bowels of the Earth and see it for the first time. The first time I actually saw it was at night on Good Friday and there were thousands of people there because the Pope participates in The Passion of Christ there on Good Friday. That was also the first time I saw the Pope in person, from a mile away, in a huge crowd, in the dark. He looks much bigger on TV, provided it was him. I couldn't tell. I left before things really got started.
I got pretty lucky the first night that I actually went to go see and photograph the Colosseum. There were some brilliant clouds and amazing light. So it looked like a postcard, and a little HDR processing doesn't hurt either. Sadly, it was closed when I finally made it there the first time, so I had to go back. It's not really that sad, and it's super easy to get to.
See, the photo just up there is no where near as cool as the other two even further up. It's really too bad for the nice Australian guy living in the Netherlands who asked my to take his photo in front of it for him. We sat for a while and talked while we waited for the light to get better. It didn't really, but I took his photo again anyway. I finally did return to the Colosseum when it was open and went inside.
There are tours of the Colosseum, and I will take one someday, but I went solo my first time. There are a few points that are important to know before you visit this place. The first is that you will stand in line for about 45 minutes while you wait to get in. The second is that people will try and sell you tours and accelerated entrance while you are in that line, many of those people are trying to scam you. The third is that there are QR codes around the Colosseum where you can purchase accelerated entrance legitimately with your mobile phone -- provided you have mobile data. Or you could just use the photo of the QR code I've provided below and buy the "Skip the Line" tickets from the comfort of your hotel, over WiFi.
Please don't let this QR code be the only reason you come back to my blog.
Once you're inside the Colosseum it is spectacular to say the least. I'm sure I would have been even more impressed had I taken a tour. I did however get to eavesdrop on a few tours, one of my favorite involved a 60 something female tour guide explaining that there was once a fountain out front where winning gladiators, glistening with sweat and oil and wearing mere loincloths would go and bathe themselves to wash off the blood. She seemed to have a remarkably vivid picture of this in her mind. It was raining, so I found a snail.
I did take this photo inside the Colosseum and it is a snail crawling along the top, or base I'm not sure, of a Roman column that is a few thousand years old. I suspect it was once flat. I really wanted a photo of a column head from the Colosseum and I got one. I just don't like it very much and this is my favorite Colosseum column-head photo.
At the end of the day this place is really just another stadium, only a few thousand years old. To be honest I've been in more impressive stadiums. Also, some of the stadiums I've been in were looking pretty ragged at 80 years old. Jerry Jones seems to have built a nice one in Texas, but there is a lot more glass in that one that the one you see above.
The other thing to consider is that the Colosseum has been fairly substantially restored -- a few times. If you walk over to the Circus Maximus, which hasn't seen nearly the attention the Colosseum has you'll get a better idea of just how much work has gone into keeping this ancient stadium standing. It's still a very impressive structure and it was amazing to be there. Like I said, I'll get a tour next time. There is one that lets you go onto the wooden "stage" part as well as underneath, but you need to book well in advance -- and pay a lot. The friendly Aussie I mentioned before took that tour and he said it was worth the 110 EUR.
See, I told you it's just another stadium. Really, the stair part you see here is so similar to every other stadium I've ever been in that it is a little depressing. Here we are, the most advanced that humans have ever been in history, so advanced that we decided to change our name to Homo Sapiens Sapiens, and yet we're using a design several thousand years old for sports stadiums. Maybe it says more about sports? It's hard to say.
The Colosseum wasn't the first place I visited by a long shot. That was in fact, the Vatican but you're going to have to wait for that. I spent a pretty good amount of time wandering around Rome and I have to say each part of the city is different. It is broken into districts and I haven't the foggiest clue how they are determined, but they are different. There is one district that is a lot like Florence with narrow streets and whatnot.
That district is where I found the statue above. She is very important because she is essentially the first lady of free speech in Rome. It is Pasquino in the Parione district of Rome. If you don't want to read the Wiki the deal is this is a Hellenistic statue from the 3rd century B.C. About 100 years after it was unearthed a cardinal draped the statue with a toga and decorated it with Latin epigrams (whatever those are). After this it became common to criticize the Pope in verse written in the Roman dialect and attach it to this statue. Those poems were called pasquinades.
I'm a huge fan of free speech and this was very cool to me. Unfortunately, free speech is generally the realm of drooling idiots and there were a lot of critiques of the then recent bombing in Belgium attached to the board on the right there. There may have been some impressive poetry about something, but my Italian sucks and my Latin is even worse and honestly if you're criticizing Pope Francis you are a complete bastard, the man is practically a living saint. Pasquino is the first of the "Talking Statues of Rome" which I didn't know until I returned. There are others and I want to see them.
Rome, Italy has a lot to offer aside from old buildings and statues. Like awesome classic Fiat 500s. There were tons of them and they are very cool. I didn't take photos of all of them. I took a photo of this one because it's blue in front of a yellow wall and there is some art stuff involved there. Like color wheels and things. The other thing that is rampant in Rome, and most of Italy, is the scooter. Holy cow they are everywhere and in Rome, Italy they drive like bats possessed by demons. Speaking of demons, let's get back to churches.
I really just stumbled into this church and absolutely loved it. I loved that Jesus was there and the Penitent Thieves were represented as well. Especially on Easter, which I think was the point. I have more photos of the church but this is my favorite. It's the Oratório de São Francisco Xavier and from what I can gather, one of the few churches that offers and English Mass. If I lived in Rome, this would be my church -- hands down.
Wow! Look at that a photo of a fountain with no segue whatsoever. Rome has fountains all over the place, I'd say more common than gelato shops, and most offer potable water. No kidding, I carried the same plastic water bottle for five days in Rome and just kept refilling it from fountains all over town. I didn't have to sneak a fill up in a restaurant bathroom like in Germany. This particular fountain is near the Pantheon.
The other thing I want to point out is that the fountain above bears the S.P.Q.R mark. This is the mark of the ancient Roman government and, evidently the mark of the government of the city of Rome. It is in a lot of places, like on garbage cans and I think sewer covers.
Since were still on fountains and lacking segues I figured I'd toss this one in. I was wondering around in the Parione District and there was just this random open courtyard with a fountain in it. No real reason, it was just there. It was a little early in the year for it to be turned on I think. Obviously, it was a nice quiet place to have a picnic. Rome is full of these hidden gems. That is why it is impossible to see all of it, even if you live there. I feel pretty lucky to have "discovered" this special spot.
One place that was no secret and I surely did not "discover" was the Trevi Fountain. It is absolutely beautiful and absolutely one of the most crowded places in Rome. So crowded in fact I had to go back at night to take this photo, which I don't particularly like but here it is. It was still crowded even when I took this, but you'll notice I left out the seating area around the front of the fountain. Yes, I tossed a coin in the fountain and even without doing so I'm pretty sure I will return to Rome.
Pretty much every place that is remotely famous in Rome is going to be crawling with people, but I did discover something interesting. The magic hour is 13:00. If you get to places before 13:00 they won't be that bad, look to a future Vatican post for some real specifics on that.
Look, another not quite so random photo of a fountain. They really are everywhere and it is cool to see them. I have a photo of the Fountain dell Baraccia, or Fountain of the Ugly Boat, at the bottom of the Spanish Steps but it was nearly as crowded at the Trevi Fountain. Also, the Spanish Steps were closed for restoration and didn't exactly make for the best backdrop. About the only good that came of my trip to the Spanish Steps was the gelato shop I found near the top and the fact that I was able to warn two British tourists that they were closed as I was leaving town and overheard them planning their assault on the city.
I'll finish up part one of my traveling in beautiful Rome, Italy post with this nice photo of some lilacs I took at the Roman Forum since part two will include it. Sure, I may toss in a tidbit here or there without any links, but if I'm writing a multi-part post I figure it's best to link the parts somehow. So, you have the Roman Forum to look forward to in two weeks.
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Monday, May 16, 2016
Spring in Florence, Part 2
Last time I was talking about Florence, Italy. This is Spring in Florence, Part 2. You can read part 1 here. I'll essentially pick up right where I left of, which was descending from the Campanile di Giotto.
Directly across from the front of the cathedral, and across from the Campanile di Giotto, is the Battistero di San Giovanni and it a a beautiful building. The light inside is magnificent as it streams through the windows around the upper part of the naive. You can really have fun playing with the light.
Of course it is a light bright in some spots, perhaps too bright for some people.
As I said Florence has a substantial share of tiny streets with all manner of exciting business happening. Florence seemed to be a very active, vibrant city where people were in fact working. Real people live here and that was refreshing.
On this trip I started to work a little more on my street photography. Why not? Florence was a great place to stretch my street photography legs and start to get back into it. It is vivacious and full of working class people going about their daily lives, yet there are enough tourists to where no one thinks twice about an errant photographer. Like the couple below, next to the cobbler's shop.
Of course you have to space things out and wander around a bit and just take cityscapes instead. I suppose cityscape photography is a genre. Far be it from me to say it's not.
I told a friend of mine that it is difficult not to make good photos in Italy. Sure some areas and places are more difficult than others, but the freshness of perspective I was able to get there made things easy. The other thing I started to notice is that there are many hidden niches and shrines. This would not abate, in fact the further I got into Italy the more of these niches I found.
It was great to see so many little hidden places. Some had electric lights in them and others were maintained well with what appeared to be fresh flowers in them. Others were not so well maintained with dusty faux flowers.
I'm sure if you're a teenager, centuries old statues painstakingly hewn from marble by the masters really lose thier appeal in a hurry. I would say even more so if you live in this place, but at least maybe talking to each other is in order. I don't know, I am not, nor have I ever been, a teen-aged girl -- thank goodness.
Very close to the disinterested teenagers there is the Fountain of Neptune in the Piazza della Signoria next to the Palazzo Vecchio. It's great how everywhere has a sexy sounding name in Italy. The statue was created by Bartolomeo Ammannati in 1565. The light on it when I walked by was amazing and I couldn't resist taking a photo.
Further wanderings took me to other interesting tiny streets, up a hill across a few bridges and many other places throughout the city. I honestly can't remember everywhere I went. I was just basically stumbling around enjoying spring in Florence. I wandered into the central market though, and had some amazing food upstairs there. Do yourself a favor and eat there. There are a few restaurants on the top floor and they all looked great.
I did walk to the top of the hill only to discover that Ft. Belvedere was closed. Which was a shame since I like military history so much. I does appear that there are some really nice gardens around the fort though. I didn't explore them and just went back down the hill.
On my last day though I ignored the advice of my innkeeper and tried to take a look at the other fort in Florence. Exactly like Stefano, the innkeeper, said the fort was undergoing renovations and was closed. He said it is also more of an outdoor venue for events than and interesting historical monument.
At least it had a moat and some bridges and gates and whatnot. Below you will see a photo I took of the rather impressive stone wall at the fort.
At one point one evening while I was wandering around looking for some place to eat I happened to pass this really cool church bazaar. Everything in it was 1 EUR and it was staffed by two delightful old ladies. I think they are delightful, they didn't really speak English. It kind of reminded my of my grandmother working in the local hospital gift shop.
And what trip to Florence would be complete without a photo of Ponte Vecchio? It's a bridge with shops on it, there is one like it in Venice too. Most of the shops are high end and I did happen to see a dead rat lying in the gutter in front of the Rolex store. It made a nice ironic statement for me.
This isn't exactly your typical Ponte Vecchio photo, but it did appear to be very popular to climb out on the bridge supports of the downriver bridge and take in the view of Ponte Vecchio, even during the day. I didn't see the police harass anyone for doing this.
So after two days in Florence I was back on the high-speed train to Rome. Which you'll get to read about next time, or maybe Venice if I decided to go out of order. You'll have to wait and see.
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