(more pics below)
Home of the Renaissance, famous paintings, a famous bridge and a ton of sculptures, I was excited that we were stopping off in Florence for a couple of days. The train Ride from Venice was pretty packed, but bearable. Getting off at the train station was BUSY! Made our way to the TI (Tourist Information) across from the train station for a free map. Another good tip from Rick Steves is the “Tourist Office” inside of the Florence train station is NOT a TI where you can get a free map. They try and trick you and charge a Euro for the map. After grabbing our map, we headed toward the hotel. The instructions we got from the hotelier said to turn left onto the street, but the map showed right. We followed her instructions and found ourselves wandering in the wrong direction. Not fun when you are carrying a duffle bag and backpack over your shoulders. We have a rolling duffle bag, but one of the wheels is getting stressed a bit much, so I’ve been carrying it. This bag has been around the world with us and I think has finally seen better days. Time for a new one after this trip.
By the time we climbed the stairs to the hotel we were drenched in sweat. Did I mention it’s hot? The very nice gentlemen at the hotel grabbed us some fresh water and glasses. The woman who checked us in did not speak any english, but we got along well enough with gestures. She grabbed the keys and said “special room”. We climbed to the top floor (which seems to be our luck so far) and opened up the door. The room was much larger than we expected. The bathroom looked like it had been remodeled recently. After changing from our hot sweaty clothes we stepped out to head towards the Duomo(Cathedral). From the map it looked further away then it turned out to be. 5 min and we were there. I have to say that we’ve seen some pretty impressive churches so far in our travels, but this one was the most beautiful from the outside. St Basils in Moscow might still top it, but the architecture is different. At this point the inside was closed but the stairs to the dome were open. We’d climbed the dome in London at St Paul’s and plan to climb the Vatican dome, so this was a must. Climbing the dome of 3 of the 4 largest churches in the world is pretty cool. There are something like 474 steps to the top, and we were huffing a little by the time we got up there. It was around 5:45 to 6:00pm, so the sun was on it’s way down. The view looking east was awesome the way the sun was hitting it. At 6:00 you could hear all the church bells ringing around town. It was a beautiful sound. Took some pictures, lingered, and made our way down for some food. We then wandered down towards the Ponte Vecchio which is a pretty famous bridge. Along the way we came across the Piazza Vecchio, which is where the original David statue stood. Today there is a replica in it’s place, and many other sculptures near it. There was another Michelangelo sculpture in the square. Made our way over past the Ponte Vecchio, where there are normally shops opened during the day. The view I wanted to see was from the next bridge down. The Ponte Vecchio spans the Arno river, which runs east/west. With the sun setting, you have a great view of the bridge with the sun behind you if you go up one more bridge. I’d scoped this out on google maps before we left home 
There was a bagpiper standing in the center of the bridge we got on to view the Ponte Vecchio. Another great moment as the sun sets staring at a beautiful bridge with bagpipes playing. Headed back towards the hotel, stopping again in the square by the Duomo to gaze in awe. Turns out there are a lot of gypsy looking ladies that work the square begging for money. They walk around with pictures of kids and get real close and start talking to you. I told one i had no money and she seemed a bit agitated. I don’t have an issue with people standing silent with cup out for change, but people who hassle you and walk up while you’re minding your own business is a bit off putting. In Venice we’d given some change to an older lady who was hunched over holding a cup. As we looked back she blew us a kiss. I’d take that over someone giving me a hard time any day.
The next morning we got up since we had reservations at the Uffizi Gallery at 9:00. The Uffizi has the largest collection of Renaissance work in Florence. I’d downloaded a free audio guide from Rick Steves to listened to as we walked through the museum. Beats paying for the museums guide, and turned out to be very helpful and informative. As you walk through the gallery the art turns from medieval and more 2 dimensional to renaissance art which is a lot more 3 dimensional. A lot of the paintings were religious and it was interesting to see some of the changes in style as the years went on. I think the highlight for me was Botichellis Venus. It’s a pretty famous piece of art and was quite stunning to see in person. There were a lot of other famous artists represented, Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo..they are all here.
We grabbed some food and headed back towards the hotel. On the way we stopped and went inside the Duomo. It’s free to enter and the line moved pretty quickly. The fresco painted on the ceiling (i believe by Giotto) was really cool. Took a couple close up shots which you can see in the photos on this post. Other than that, the inside wasn’t as impressive as the outside in my opinion.
Grab a siesta and headed to the Accademia gallery to see David. We went in the reservation line since the lady at our hotel had booked us for 3pm. However we found out at the ticket counter that the code she gave us was for the Uffizi only, and not the Accademia. That was supposed to be a separate number. Tried to explain that to the ticket man. He very nicely let us buy tickets instead of making us go back and stand in the long line outside. Photographs are not allowed inside the museum, but I managed to make a couple stealth shots. The framing and what not was as best I could do without looking suspicious. Point from around my by my chest, shoot, and hope something comes out….a few did. David was pretty impressive. The rest of the museum, not so much. Pretty cool to see the true work of Michelangelo in person. After grabbing some gelato we headed across the Arno to the Pitti Palace to check out the Boboli Gardens(of pizza fame ) and the Costume Museum. Both were pretty cool, though I favored the garden of the two There was a great view of downtown Florence from up there. Went back to the hotel, dropped bags off and found a little cafe just down the street to eat dinner. Grabbed some fruit and $1 box wine from the supermarket and relaxed in the room the last couple hours before sleep. Tomorrow we head to the Cinque Terre.
