Florence Day 10 - 23rd February 2016

Yesterday’s steep stair climb, walking and long day had taken its toll on our bodies, and both Hugh and I were startled at 8am when we were woken up by breakfast being delivered to our room.  Our food was quickly wolfed down so we could leave to explore Florence some more.

We decided to see the Duomo area again in the morning. It was a much nicer area at 9am in the morning, with fewer tourists. When there are less tourists about, there are less scam artists and pick-pockets.

Outside Duomo

Around the Duomo area were some kitschy tourist stores, so I stopped in them to buy my Florence fridge magnets and a few gifts for family back home, as well as some leather belts for Hugh.

By the time we had done our little bits of shopping the Duomo had opened.  We baulked at the €15 per person ticket price. The ticket booth was located inside the Duomo, so we decided to poke our heads in, and if we didn’t think it was worth it, not buy a ticket. Inside there is about 3m worth of area you can stand in without a ticket, so we just did this once we got in. The inside didn’t impress us as much as the outside did and we could see most of it from the ticketing area, so we left without spending nearly $60AUD.

On the Ponte Vecchio

Back outside, the sky was becoming darker and rain was threatening to break as we walked to the Ponte Vecchio. The Ponte Vecchio was lined with over-priced jewelry stores, some of which were quite unique. The rain finally broke in a hard pelt as we made it to the far end of the Ponte Vecchio. We sought shelter under a shop awning until the rain had settled to a drizzle.

Ponte Vecchio

From the Ponte Vecchio we took a short walk to the Uffizi Gallery. It was a shock to me to see a military presence at the gallery. In Australia, I take for granted our distance from other countries and the current goings on in the world.

Winter travel in Europe does wonders for skipping lines and saving money. In the summer, we were told it was essential to pre-book tickets to the Uffizi. In Winter, we were able to wait in a small queue, the most of which being security and bag screening, and be inside the gallery within 10 minutes with no prior reservation. Not having to make a reservation also saves money, costing us only €8 per person, instead of the €12 per person it costs to book a ticket with a reservation.

Florence houses quite a large portion of the world’s art treasures, so a visit to the Uffizi was a must for me. I don’t think Hugh thought the same. I guess because I don’t have a religious bone in my body, it didn’t live up to my expectations. The majority of the gallery was dedicated to religious depictions, because of the commissioning during the eras that they were created. Don’t get me wrong, the works were stunning and had obviously had a lot of work put into them, and were far better than anything I could hope to achieve; but there is only so much gold-leaf Madonna and Child depictions I could handle.

I did really like the busts and carved statues. The Hercules, the Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess nerd that lives within me got super excited to see the busts of Greek gods, and other names I recognised from the T.V. Series.

The ceiling in the main walkway was mesmerising. I think I cricked my neck looking up so much.

In order to keep my sanity, I started to make little observations and stories up in my head about each artwork. If anyone who knew anything about art could have heard my thoughts I’m sure I would have been sent out immediately. Turns out I wasn’t the only art offender in Uffizi that day. As I left from a portrayal of the wise men bent by baby Jesus’ feet, I heard a man snigger beside me and whisper under his breath “Suck my toe, bitch”. It was almost exactly what I had been thinking. I did wonder if he had the same Zombie Jesus musings that I did when he got to the green-tinged portraits of the risen Jesus.

What seemed like many hours later we finally escaped the Uffizi. It was close to the Santa Croce area where we had eaten dinner on our first night in Florence, so we headed this way. On our way we found a leather factory so popped in to have a look. We also saw the Palazzo Vecchio and finally found the statue of David standing outside it.

Palazzo Vecchio near the Uffizi

By now it was getting late so we popped back across the Arno river for dinner. Hugh had a pesto tortellini and I decided it was finally time to try a pizza in Italy, and opted for a ham and mushroom pizza. Something I learnt about Italian Pizza was that they tended to use only 1 or 2 ingredients, and it was a much better way to eat pizza.

With fully bellies we started towards our hotel, making a detour to the Piazza Della Repubblica to try to work off some of the pizza.  The Piazza was still bustling, with the Picci Carousel brightly lit, buskers playing lively music and shops still open.

Picci Carousel

Florence, Day 7/8 -20th - 21st February 2016

Florence takes some getting used to. When we arrived into Florence yesterday we ignored everyone as we battled to get our suitcases over the bumpy road on a sidewalk that was skinnier than the Roma Varisco, whilst having to readjust to having cars whiz by.

We were relieved when we made it to Firenze Suite and could pull off our hot layers (lugging bags for a good few kilometers was exhausting and steamy). 

Eventually we ventured back out to play in the traffic just before dusk. Our accommodation was only 2 to 3 streets away from the Duomo. Duomo was astoundingly huge and we used it as a marker for our location, as it towered over everything. We stopped off at Duomo, craning our necks to admire the stunning green and white marble. Duomo had quite a few tourists milling about, and a noticeable police presence. We had read that tourist areas in Italy were quite bad for thieves and pickpockets, so weren't too worried. It was as expected. As we tried to leave the Duomo area a man stopped Hugh, trying to forcibly press a set of beads into his hands. No sooner had Hugh started to say no as the man tried to insist it was a 'gift', then two police officers had pulled the man aside and asked to see his papers. 

We hurried away from Duomo, again being accosted by scam artists, who were looking for signatures on a petition. We had reached the petition station when we realised it was a scam (in Australia, petitions are usually legit) as they asked for a 'donation'. We refused and walked away quickly. 

We made our way through the San Lorenzo markets, where sellers of Chinese knock-off leather goods tried hard to get our attention. We had already decided at the start of this holiday that we weren't going to be buying much in terms of clothing or large souvenirs, so it was easy to keep our heads down and walk quickly to get out the other side. 

Eventually we managed to make our way to a small trattoria, a place where the locals obviously came to dine. Exactly the sort of place we wanted. A police officer who obviously knew the owner quite well popped in and out over the hour and half we were there, to use the toilet facilities and eat his dinner. The owner spoke very little English, but served up the most mouthwatering spaghetti with white meat sauce.

Our bellies full and the memory of such a taste lingering on our tongues, we made our way back to Firenze Suite.

This morning we were greeted with a huge breakfast delivered into our room, including one of the best hot chocolates I had ever had. It was the perfect mixture between a thick gooey Italian hot chocolate and the milky ones back in Australia.

After breakfast we headed across the Arno, to the hills in the Northern area of Florence. We forced our feet up steep steps to make it to the Abbazia San Miniato Al Monte, a 1000 year old monastery overlooking Florence, affording the most beautiful views. Duomo was seen clearly, rising above all the other buildings.

View from San Miniato

We paid €1 each to enter the monastery, where preparations for Sunday morning mass were taking place. Chanting of Gregorian hymns came from the back of the monastery, echoing eerily around the old ceiling.

We left before mass; not being religious I didn't think I could sit through it and didn't want to rudely leave during a sermon.

In the Rose Garden

We stopped at the Michelangelo lookout on our way back down, which offered more views of Florence. The route we picked down cut through a quiet rose garden, whose flowers were still sleeping from Winter.

Stone wall on the way up the hill

The walk up and down the hill took most of the morning. In the afternoon we decided to take a train out to Viareggio for the Carneval. Hopping off the train, we were very excited to see the streets awash with crazy costumes. We blindly followed the crowds, who all seemed to be heading in one direction: to the beach.

When we arrived though, we saw that the entire festival area had been made inaccessible by tall fences. Erected signs told us that it was €18 per person to enter the festival area. Having spent €20 each on return tickets, and seeing the large crowd packed into the festival area, we decided it was not worth our money. Instead, we took a walk along the street until we reached an accessible part of the beach (The beach even had fences on it right until the waters edge, as well as guards next to the water to ensure you could not swim around the fence to join for free. Dark, overcast skies threatened to spill over us so we made our way back to the festival entrance, as the floats had started their parade. We could see the gigantic, 10 metre high floats through the entry way. Quite a few people were viewing the floats from this free vantage point.

Tired and cold, we headed back to Florence.