Day 76-78: Florence

We have been living off the grid for the last few days, as our apartment in Florence does not have Internet. Therefore, the events from these days have been compiled into a single post. Let us begin.

We arrived in Florence in style on the Euro Star, the quite nice high-speed trains that link up the major cities in Italy and other parts of Europe. We had a bit of a walk to our new home for the next 5 days, which is across the river in the neighbourhood of Oltrarno, but all went as planned and we arrived to meet the apartment owner shortly before 13:00. He showed us around, which took all of 30 seconds. While the apartment is a single small room with a foldout couch and closet-like bathroom, it exudes charm with exposed bricks and an old school timber ceiling.

We had a light snack and made a game plan for the afternoon using our guidebook. Since it was getting on in the day, we decided to do the walking tour in our book, which links together the main sights on the north side of the Arno River, grab some groceries, and come back and prepare dinner.

Florence is a beautiful, if touristy, city. When we emerged from our side of the river we were treated to the following view. Really, who could complain? The bridge in the picture is Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge), where the city's gold and silversmiths are setup and have been since the 1500's. We walked along the bridge but decided the baubles were slightly out of our price range.

The walk then continued into the Uffizi courtyard. The Uffizi once acted as offices to the Medici family, Florence's richest and most powerful for hundreds of years. The building is now a world-renowned museum, which houses works by Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo (not the Ninja Turtles). The courtyard is filled with statues of famous personalities from the Renaissance, including Donatello, Dante, and Galileo. As we already had reservations for the next day, we soldiered on.

As we entered the next Piazza, it became clear that Florence was somewhat similar to Rome in that there is something interesting to see around every corner (although that also means there are a few hundred other tourists around the corner too). We found the replica of Michelangelo's David, where the original stood for 350 years until it was moved into the Accademia Museum for preservation purposes. There were many other interesting statues around the Piazza.

Next, we stepped inside the Orsanmichele Church, which has medieval roots and was originally a granary. The interior was gorgeous, as so many church interiors are in Italy.

 

We headed up one of the major shopping streets to the Duomo - Florence's Cathedral. The dome of the Cathedral was the inspiration for many to follow, including St. Peter's in Rome, and was the largest since the Pantheon, which the architect studied in Rome before constructing his masterpiece.

In typical Italian fashion, the inside of the dome was covered by frescoes.

The church's bell tower is considered by some to be the most beautiful in all of Europe.

It was time for a break. One of the recommended Gelaterias, with organic ingredients and seasonal flavours, was nearby so we stopped in. It was delicious, reminding us of our favourite place in Rome (thanks again VG Dave!).

We finished the day by stopping at some street markets to browse for scarves and other souvenirs and then picking up groceries for dinner.

Saturday started fairly early, with us making a trip around the corner to check out the local market. We stocked up on fruits and veggies. On the way back to the apartment, we stopped at the butcher and baker as well. It is really nice to have small, specialized stores and buy quality products instead of relying on Whole Foods, Zehrs, or the like.

We had a 12:00 reservation at the Uffizi Gallery and arrived on time. Unfortunately, pictures were not allowed inside the museum (this seems to be the trend in Florence), so we can't include any pictures. We did enjoy many fine pieces of art. My favourite was Leonardo da Vinci's Annunciation, while Daryl liked the Baptism of Christ by Andrea del Verrocchio, who was da Vinci's teacher. Da Vinci painted a single angel in Baptism of Christ, but in Daryl's estimation, the depiction of that angel was leaps and bounds beyond the rest of the picture. According to our guidebook (and legend), Verrocchio realized that a 14 year old had painted a better angel than he ever would and hung up his brush forever.

We grabbed lunch at a recommended Panini shop, but it was crammed and kind of snotty. We finished with gelato from another recommended gelateria, but it was bad. We decided to just hit up our favourite from the day before anytime we experience a gelato craving while in Florence.

In the afternoon, we went to the Santa Croce Church, one of Florence's biggest and oldest churches.

Inside are the tombs of many of Florence's most famous Renaissance men, including:

 

*Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)

*Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564)

*Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)

*Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527)

Daryl really enjoyed the ceiling in the church, which consisted of painted timbers.

There is a leather school in the back of the church, which was started to teach young boys who were orphaned as a result of WWII a trade, and the school is known to produce very high quality products. We picked up a new wallet for Daryl, whose birthday is fast approaching (November 19).

We then went out into the church courtyard to enjoy the fading sunlight. There was a beautiful chapel (originally a private chapel for a very well off family) that we stepped into. The same dude who completed the dome of the Florence Cathedral (Duomo) completed this dome.

We walked through the streets, enjoying the crowds and noise. We stopped into a church where an organist was rehearsing and listened to some Dracula-esque music. While Daryl loved it, I had my fill pretty quickly. We then hit up a little pastry shop to get some dessert for dinner and headed home.

*On our walk we found a restaurant named Simon Boccanegra, the title of the Opera we saw in Budapest

*Ponte Vecchio at night on our way back to our apartment

We made gnocchi (purchased) with a Bolognese sauce (homemade), accompanied by some Chianti. While the kitchen is tiny, it is surprisingly easy to make the space work (at least in the short term). It was a very nice and delicious end to the day.

Daryl started Sunday with an 8-mile run, while I pouted a little bit about my inability to run. I opted instead for doing some strength training and getting breakfast ready.

At noon, we arrived at the Accademia to see the most famous statue in the world, Michelangelo's David. While there is a lot of hype around this little guy (okay, maybe he is not so little, clocking in at 17 feet), the hype is not wrong. The statue is pretty amazing to behold. It is inconceivable that Michelangelo was able to carve David out of a single block of marble that other sculptors had turned down because it was too tall, shallow, and flawed, and to do so without any guide marks but completely freehand. We walked around the statue a few times and then sat at different angles and just starred. We probably spent about 45 minutes sitting and looking at David alone. We then took a quick look at the other museum holdings, which really aren't much, and then took off. Daryl decided he wanted to buy a little statue of David as a souvenir, which we ended up doing later in the day. Again, photos were prohibited, so we have no photographic proof that we actually did any of this. You will just have to take our word.

We felt kind of sluggish and decided it was time for a sweet treat. We headed to our new favourite gelato shop and tried some new flavours. They were just as delicious as our first selections. I think we may need to stop in on Monday and Tuesday too.

While wandering to the next museum on the docket, we turned onto a side street with what appeared to be a lot of locals queued up at food windows. We figured that whatever they were serving must be worth waiting for and got in line. The one window specialized in tripe (beef stomach and intestine). When I found this out, I bailed and went to the other window to order a traditional prosciutto and pecorino panini. Daryl, adventurous as ever with his food, ordered a tripe sandwich and a couple of cups of house wine and we sat down to enjoy.

*Beef stomach, which I tried and didn't exactly appreciate. Daryl loved it!

We stopped in at the Galileo Science Museum, which we were really excited about. Unfortunately, the displays were not at all interactive. A lot of cool instruments and devices were displayed behind glass cases, with little in the way of description. Oh well. We definitely wouldn't recommend it to other travelers.

Our final stop of the day was at Santa Maria Novella, which houses some early Renaissance works that influenced artists in the years to come. Once again, pictures were not allowed inside, but we did get a shot of the church exterior.

Nearby, there is a fancy perfumery store that started as the herb garden of the Santa Maria Novella monks. It was dark, aromatic, and pretty hoity feeling. It is supposed to have some very high quality products, so we sprung for some fancy soap (I'm sure you can guess who influenced the purchase and who didn't care).

We ended the day by walking back over the river, catching a pretty gorgeous sunset.