Visiting the Big City

After our days spent in quiet, Tuscan hilltowns, we opted for a city day in Florence. For Nathan, Florence was a big let down - one of those situations where your imaginings don't live up to the reality you experience. Unfortunately, September was still high season in Florence. To make matters worse, we were driving into town from our beautiful, quiet village in the hills. This sounded so easy, but we hit traffic snarls going into the city, and then unwittingly entered the limited traffic zone while trying to get to the parking garage near the train station. When the camera pinged our car, we were already on a one way street going deeper into the zone. Oopsies.

After finally reaching a garage, getting parked, and taking a breather, we popped right out into the San Lorenzo zone, one of my favorites. And there we were, Florence. Gorgeous, history-rich Florence, birthplace of the Renaissance, ancestral home of the Medici family, the place that holds one of mankind's greatest sculptures in Michelangelo's David - we were actually there, walking the streets...along with what seemed to be every other tourist in Italy at the same time. Shoulder to shoulder crowds - but that wasn't as bad as the shoulder to shoulder tour groups. Crowds are one thing, but congested streets of tour groups in packs is a completely different beast. Nathan and his aunt and uncle had reservations to enter the Uffizi, and we had just enough time to grab lunch before they had to pick up their tickets. From there, two of them were heading on down to the Accademia and David before our group reconvened in front of the Duomo in the afternoon. Interestingly, my favorite sandwich shop in Florence was completely empty. Located only a block from the Uffizi, it's a great place to grab a quick lunch on your own time schedule rather than your waiter's (that's another blog post, I suppose - eating in Italy).

I had an ambitious few hours of touring to do alone. Since I visited both the Uffizi and the Accademia back in February, I skipped them this time around in hopes of seeing the Scuola del Cuoio (leatherworks school) at the Basilica di Santa Croce, the Medici Chapels (reputed to hold the greatest of Michelangelo's works), the San Lorenzo market to pick up a few gifts, and possibly the Pitti Palace Gardens for some relaxation. I'd intended to add the Ferragamo flagship store just to see the shoe museum as well. I made it to Basilica di Santa Croce before realizing that I, too, had just about had it with the crowds...and the heat. I don't think I've mentioned that the last few days had been ones of record breaking heat. Skipping the leather school and doing my best to walk back alleys over to the Medici Chapels, I changed course. And happened upon the most beautiful ceramics store. Absolutely gorgeous work in the window just called me into the shop. I spent an enjoyable 20 minutes or so visiting with the artist and hearing about her accidental find of the color she was using on a current collection, one of which came home to Naples with me. Even better, when my friend came over to visit after our Tuscany week, she noticed my plate displayed on an easel and was so excited that I'd found the same artist she also loves in Florence. Good things come from haunting back alleys in Italy. (If anyone's interested, the shop is a few doors down from the Dante Museum.).

San Lorenzo Market & Basilica di San Lorenzo

I happily arrived at the Basilica di San Lorenzo, my next stop being the Medici Chapels. "Happily" because this place is right next to the San Lorenzo market, which was my one and only absolute "must stop" in Florence. One would think I would have guessed that these two places were near each other, both being named San Lorenzo and all, but it's a testament to the crowds and the heat that I had no clue until I popped out of an alley facing both the church and the market. By now, I'd reached the point where I was ready to find a quiet piazza and a glass of wine to sit with my Kindle. I quickly took care of my market business and headed into the Basilica after paying my 4euro entry. And then I couldn't find those darn chapels anywhere. You know why? They are behind the church at a separate entrance...with a separate entry fee. Annoooooying...but I was on the trail of those Michelangelo sculptures. The ground floor of the chapel is filled with ornate, intricate reliquaries with bones of saints fit into extravagant, filigree work in silver and gemstones..."dem bones, dem bones, gonna walk aroun'"...everyone sing it with me...you know, the old, southern spiritual song..."the head bone connected to the neck bone" and so on. Anyone? Anyone at all? Okay, enough of that, time to head upstairs to the sarcophagi topped with Michelangelo sculptures. I have to say, they just didn't speak to me. They were nice. But not nicer than, say, a glass of wine and a quiet piazza.

And that's exactly what I found. At time to meet up with the group at the Duomo, we lucked into a table located front and center in front of that glorious dome and enjoyed some rest time catching up with each other while gazing at one of the western world's most famous churches. With everyone all Florenced out, we headed out of town to go to dinner in Siena...and see the gorgeous Campo at twilight. Living in Italy can be challenging, frustrating, exasperating, and exhausting...but then we get a reward like getting to see the treasures of Florence by day and walking Siena's romantic streets by night, all in the same day. Life can be pretty good.

Is there any prettier sight in all of Italy? Maybe, but Siena's Il Campo at sunset is pretty awesome.

More Firenze Photos

As I did with Venice, I've now gone back and added some photos to the previous blog posts. You can scroll down to those posts if you want to see the embedded photos. In addition, I've put up a few more of my favorite photos in this post...as you'll see, I'm a big fan of the up close statue photos...

A beautiful grave statue at San Miniato Church

Duomo

Odd little statue tucked into a niche in an alley.

Part of the Duomo exterior

Base of statue in Piazza della Signoria

Found my dream car!

Base of the arches in the sculpture-filled loggia of Piazza della Signoria

Just one of the gorgeous statues in Piazza della Signoria loggia

Campanile (Bell Tower) of Duomo

Travels in Italia - Firenze III

Our last two days were fairly relaxing and quiet. Our feet were starting to really hurt after a whole week of walking all day, every day. We ate both nights at the most fantastic restaurant, I Quattri Leoni, located in the Oltrarno neighborhood, across the Ponte Vecchia bridge. We could not get enough of the food at this restaurant, including a wonderful, avocado salad - something I haven't had since moving to Italy. Our final day, we did take the bus up to Piazza Michelangelo, on a hilltop overlooking the city. And of course, after six straight days of gorgeous blue skies, this was the day we had fog and haze. The view was still excellent, we just missed the backdrop of blue behind the rooflines. We also found where the men of Florence hang out. To our delight, the town of Florence was filled with women. Finally, we were in a place where other women were out together, eating together, in the coffee bars together - we no longer got strange looks (as happens in Naples). Up in this piazza, the men had congregated with their vintage cars. We got to walk around Cinquecentos, Fiats, a cute Katerina, Alfa Romeos - very fun and as interesting as the view over the city.

In this photo, you can see the old City wall

Behind the piazza is the San Miniato church, a cute, little confection in the same pink and green marble of the Duomo. It's quite beautiful inside, but mass was going on, so we popped in only to move our eyes around. It was freezing inside, which goes a long way in explaining why 90% of the women in the nord wear fur. Fur coats, long and short, fur on their boots, fur hats. I didn't even know people still wore fur on a regular basis. PETA would have a field day in northern Italy.

Beside the church is little shop run by the monks selling their tonics and such. This must be a big thing in these parts, monk produced toiletry items. I rather like the idea, although I've yet to try my tonics. Walking down from the church, we got to wander through the Oltrarno neighborhood, a little off the tourist path. K went on for a walk while I stopped off at Pitti Palace to visit the Costume Gallery and Argenti Museum (Treasure museum). What a complete waste of time and money. I hated both of them. I thought the layout was ridiculous, the exhibits poorly lit, oddly designed, and just plain boring. The Argenti Museum has a mandatory, extra exhibit on wine, for which 4euros is added to your ticket cost. This is just plain annoying since I had no desire to see this exhibit. The Costume Gallery is located through a maze of staircases and turns. All in all, I was disgusted. I visited the palace's Boboli Gardens eight years ago and remember them to be a peaceful haven and respite. This time, it was cold and late in the day (and I was so annoyed), so I headed back to the hotel for a long rest. It wasn't the best final afternoon in Florence, but our second dinner at I Quattri Leoni made up for it - that's the dinner where we were at a table next to actress Judy Davis for those of you who read that blog posting.

Just a random, gorgeous building

Now, on to the Tuscan hill town of Volterra...

Travels in Italia - Firenze II

We had failed to do what every guidebook recommends regarding the Uffizi and Accademia museums...get a reservation. We decided to take our chances since we were in low season, and the chance paid off. We walked in with no wait at every place we visited (Venice, too, for that matter). With the Uffizi being the grandaddy museum and knowing it would be a couple of hours of intense art overload, we headed there first. Rick Steves has some phenomenal AudioTours on iTunes, and I surely don't mind pushing them. It was great to put in my earphones and wander through the museum, leaving my hands free of a guidebook and eyes free to take in the art instead of read about it. Still, though, my absolute favorite thing about the Uffizi is the ceilings. They are magical and every single square inch is covered with gorgeous paintings. Next time I visit Florence, I am going to take a hand mirror so I can enjoy those ceilings without neck strain. One of the Uffizi's most famous paintings is Birth of Venus (this is the one where a naked Venus, with her bits and bobs covered with long, flowing hair, is standing on a half shell). I have to admit that in person, this one didn't impress me as much as I was expecting, perhaps because it's surrounded by so much other talent or perhaps because the colors are so faded. I was expecting more vibrancy...and, I'm currently in my I-like-bright-colors stage. This will change in a few years, and then favorites will change as well. With our Uffizi visit over, we needed sustenance, and found it at a lovely sandwich shop, 'Ino, right around the corner from the Uffizi. We liked it so much that we returned the next day as well.

Next up, we walked to the Accademia, via the Duomo. Now Florence's Duomo is a sight to behold. It's exterior is all white, pink and green marble, which greatly appeals to my Lilli Pulitzer love. We walked past the Duomo another night right at sunset, and when the setting sun hits the facade of this marble, it glows. A little Duomo Fun Fact: Building started on it around 1300, and it's dome was the largest in the world for hundreds of years. However, at the time of building, there was no technology for a dome of that size, so it was built with just a flat roof, the people being confident that someone would come along eventually with the knowledge to build the dome that was designed. Even today, the dome is the largest brick one ever built.

A small section of the Baptistry doors

A quick pop into the interior of the Duomo proved to be disappointing as it's practically empty and has very little magic or interesting art. So off we headed to the Accademia and our date with David. David was originally commissioned for the roof of the Duomo, so Michelangelo carved him with a disproportionately large head due to perspective. But during the work, it was decided to place him in front of Palazzo Vecchio instead. A copy stands there today while the Accademia houses the real deal. Michelangelo ticked off all his fellow sculptors of the time because while they would pick out the perfect pieces of marble, then sketch designs onto them and chip out their designs, Michelangelo would just start chiseling away. He believed the sculpture was in the marble waiting to get out. The Accademia holds several unfinished sculptures of Michelangelo as well, which gives us a great look at his incredible skill, and visitors also get to see a detailed, gorgeous, carved wooden crucifix, which Michelangelo carved at only age 17. It was a thank you gift to a church that had allowed him to dissect bodies from their hospital in order to study the human form. Age 17!

Okay...I lied. This is the interior of Florence's Duomo's dome - it has a gorgeous painting on it. However, this and a painting of Dante are really the only two pieces of artwork in the HUGE Duomo, so, relative to all the other churches we visited on our trip, Florence's Duomo interior was uninspiring...nice to visit since we didn't wait in line, but certainly not worth it at another time of year when lines are long.

After all this heavy art, it was time for some shopping. We headed to the nearby San Lorenzo market, a perfect haven for leather goods, silk ties, scarves, and trays. Haggling is acceptable here, and for those of you who read my posting on all my trip souvenirs, this market is the site of the dapper, young scarf seller. He's so adorable that you just have to buy a scarf based on his personality. This was the place for leather purses, suitcases, briefcases, wallets, and anything else that can be made out of leather. And finally, our last visit of the day was to the Santa Maria Novella Pharmacy, begun as the herb garden of the church's monks about 700 years ago. Today, they sell perfume, elixirs, tonics, and even products for your pet. It's beautiful and ritzy inside, and would have been much more enjoyable without pushing and shoving tourists crowding the desks in each room. There is a room for teas and tonics, a room for home items & pet care, and a room for skin care and perfume. The staff dealt amazingly well with incredibly rude tourists, save one lady, who ignored me when I asked her a question, refused to help me in favor of people who'd come up after me to her table, then talked about me to her co-worker in Italian...but since we were in the "nord" (north), I could understand her. I only wish my Italian were good enough for me to have called her on it in Italian...it would have been a great "Pretty Woman" moment.

Have you seen the Hitchcock movie, "The Birds?" I think he got his inspiration after a visit to Florence.

After a busy day, we were ready to relax and had yet another enjoyable meal at one of Anna's restaurant recommendations, Osteria Marione. For me, one of the greatest parts of this trip was the eating out. We had delicious food everywhere we went, and it was so nice to get to order off of a menu...and to have choices other than pizza or seafood.

Travels in Italia - Firenze

Florence's famous, Ponte Vecchio bridge over the Arno River

Florence gave the world Galileo, Dante, Michelangelo, Donatello, Machiavelli, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Florence Nightingale, and a true example of last but not least, Salvatore Ferragamo. It ushered in the Renaissance age and woke the world up. As for K and I, we needed waking up. Venice was exhausting! We slowed our pace down in Florence, starting with our trip on the fast (Eurostar) train from Venice, which got us to Florence in about three hours. We had reservations at the lovely Hotel Relais Cavalcanti, a boutique hotel about a five minute walk from the Uffizi with two sisters running the place who are fantastic communicators. We had multiple emails prior to our visit confirming arrival time and providing incredibly detailed directions straight to the front door from the train station. After showing us the common areas and our very pretty room, Anna returned with a map of the city upon which she had handmarked in color-coded highlighters suggested sites and restaurants. She even included budget info with the restaurants! We quickly decided to follow her recommendations, and found all of them to be just great throughout our stay in her lovely city.

Sculpture filled loggia outside Palazzo Vecchio

After a little rest, we headed out at dusk to explore the neighborhood. Our hotel was located in Florence's large, pedestrian zone in the historic district, so we were able to ease back into the world of traffic slowly. About three minutes from our hotel, we happened upon an outdoor leather market, held in a place that seems like it could have been hosting outdoor markets for hundreds of years. A little guidebook searching confirmed this - Mercato Nuovo...I missed taking a look at the circled X on the ground in the center of the market. This marks the spot where people were dropped from the ceiling as a bankruptcy punishment. Another few minutes past this, and we came upon the Piazza della Signoria with it's most beautiful, covered loggia containing a multitude of large sculptures and bronze statues. By now it was dark, but this loggia was well-lit and quite magical in the dark. The piazza was quiet, and the visitors wandering around the statues were contemplative. Palazza Vecchio, Florence's Town Hall and a museum, had it's doors open, and inside we could glimpse some decorative walls. We wandered in, only to find a gorgeous courtyard with frescoed walls and ceilings, carved columns that were a riot of swirls and vines, and beautiful paintings. It was a delightful, quick visit and an introduction to the reason Florence is considered one of the art capitals of the world.

Amazing courtyard of Palazzo Vecchio (a museum and the Town Hall)

All of this walk was designed to take us towards one of Anna's recommended restaurants. Arriving at 7:10, we were too early by 20 minutes for their opening, so we headed for cocktails at the bar next door, Moyo. And there we learned an amazing secret of Florence. The cocktail bars put out appetizer spreads to rival a buffet, and these are included in the cost of your 8euro cocktail. One drink, and a person could eat their fill of cheese, sandwiches, pizza, pasta salads, chicken bites, and the list goes on. In addition, Moyo makes a real deal Bellini. The Bellini was invented by Harry's Bar in Venice and is a peach puree in prosecco (Italian version of champagne). I ordered bellinis all over Venice and kept getting this premixed, straight out of the bottle drink that you can buy in American grocery stores. Disappointing. But at Moyo in Florence, I finally got a real one...and it was good.

Why You Should...

...always bring an empty suitcase if you're traveling to or through Italy!

The windows in Venice are irresistible, so filled with shiny, sparkly things. Both Venice and Florence were home to some beautiful, paper stores. We concentrated on those that were specific artist studios, with paper, books, and other lovelies made of the owner/artist's designs. Scarfs are very (!) popular here right now, and we were sucked in by a dapper, young fellow in the market who immediately began using us as his models to tie our scarves about 27 different ways. He hooked us both when he tied one in a huge, fluffy bow and said, "We sometimes call this the Grace Kelly." We, who? Actually, who cares, I'll take three scarves, please. The large cones of yarn are my Best Find, at only 2euro per cone in Siena's street market. Since I don't think any knitters read this blog, this will mean nothing, so just trust me, it's beyond amazing. And my Favorite Find is the little piece of Venice street art. I love the light in it, and can't wait to have it framed.

My friend and I returned from our trip on Thursday night. I was very ill all day Thursday and spent all of Friday in bed. Thus, I still haven't started blogging about our trip. Pictures will take awhile to post, too, as I have over 1000 to go through! I took over 700, and my friend took almost 300. Nathan's only question was, "How on earth did you possibly take 700 pictures?" Not, "Why is your suitcase so much heavier?" or "Why do you have an extra bag than the one you left with?" or "What was your favorite site?" Nope...only, disbelief at the sheer volume of photos. But on trips, I'm a picture taker. I love panoramic views and close up shots of interesting door handles. I love the play of the light on the bows of the gondolas and the sheer multitude of Japanese tour groups loading their entire group into those same gondolas, screaming all the while. I love the mask filled windows of Venice and the sunset light hitting the pink and green marble on Florence's Duomo. I take pictures of all of it. I'll start blogging on the actual trip in the next few days.