The Duomo from the top of Campanile
Florence is a friendly and walkable city perhaps especially to Americans as they seem to make up one of the bulk of the travelers. In comparison, the Venetians seemed hot and bothered by tourists, the folk from Florence happily speak English and provide tips and information. The Lombardi family who owns and runs Hotel Casci, where we stayed, went out of their way to make reservations, provide guidance and make us feel comfortable. It's amazing what a difference this type of service can make in your experience of a new place, and make you want to return.
Florence was founded in 59 BC when the Romans built an encampment on the banks of the Arno River called Florentia in honor of the goddess Flora. Florence is most well known for as a wealthy city in the 14th century run by the wealthy Medici family.
For our first of two days, we started our touring at the Piazza del Duomo. Not wanting to deal with the long lines at the Duomo, we steered toward the Campanile or bell Tower instead. After climbing the 414 steps (no elevator!), we were rewarded with panoramic views of the city.
Photos: View looking down the Campanile shoot and Climbing the Steps
Parker and I did the same climb 2 years ago when we visited Florence in 2008 for Parker's 40th birthday except, as it was March then, it was much cooler.
After the Campanile, we spent the bulk of the afternoon at the l'Accademia Museum where Michelangelo's statue of David resides. It's such a massive, impressive work of art, that it's hard to believe that Michelangelo created it in just 2 years after many well known sculptors of the day had refused to attempt anything with the huge slab of marble. L'Accademia also had an interesting exhibit that described Renaissance artwork through video highlights, which was sort of a mini art history class, and helped to keep the kids interested.
A good tourist can't go to Florence without doing shopping especially after getting a fill of sites and artwork. There are several open-air market which sell endless Pashminas galore (Celia's favorite), beautiful bags, leather jackets, and belts. We had saved our shopping time for Florence and picked up a few things here. How many pashminas can one own? Many, many, many. I also purchased a 'man bag' as Parker likes to call it; one of those unisex over the shoulder puppies which are very useful for traveling. I figure we'll be doing a lot of that this year.
Photos: Dinner out, Kelsey/Celia/Colin in front of Ponte Vecchio, Michelangelo mime outside the Uffizi, Gratuitous Gelateria shot (since we spent so much time at them)
At the market, we met Drew, a lovely Canadian who gave us the 'in' at a local restaurant (Ristorante Pizzeria Regginale) where we could bring our own yummy bottle of Brunello (normally unheard of to bring your own wine) that he had picked up in Cinque Terre.
The second day we went to the historical Ponte Vecchio, the only one of Florence's many bridges that wasn't destroyed and then rebuilt by either the World War II bombings, or the 1966 flooding of the Arno. In the afternoon, we endured the long lines for the Uffizi to see Botticelli's 'Birth of Venus,' and among many other famous Italian paintings and artworks.
We had hoped to make it to Galileo's Museum of inventions but we wanted to leave a few hours for Pisa before catching our flight back to Barcelona where we will spend 3 days and see the Barcelona FC vs AC Milan soccer game on August 26.
Later August 22, Pisa
Pisa is sort of like the Grand Canyon in the movie, "Vacation" where Chevy Chase drives up and snaps a photo and then wants to move on. It's a great picture spot but not much else there. Who would ever go see the straight tower of Pisa? Nevertheless, Colin and Kelsey really got a kick out of it; when you look at it from the bottom, you can see how much one side has sunk into the ground...pretty amazing.
No comments:
Post a Comment