Italy 2007 – Florence
Venice is about history. Cinque Terre is about nature. Florence.. is about art. So.. that’s a large portion of “what’s to do” in Florence. After eating a continental breakfast in our hotel, we set off for the Accademia Gallery to see Michaelangelo’s “David“. Since we were centrally located near the Duomo, it was a short walk to get there – including my not normally questionable navigation.
I have to confess.. I’m not the world’s biggest art connoisseur outside of portraiture. Being that photography wasn’t invented for a few hundred years after the Renaissance – I’d see nothing but sculpture and painting. Apparently if you are in to it, you can derive great meaning from the expression of the paintings and how their hands are positioned – but they all kind of look the same to me. The art at the Accademia is no exception. The star of the show is the “Big Nude Dude” himself – David. Since I’ve already heard the tale of how his enlarged hand represents the hand of God – or maybe Michaelangelo just blew his proportions – I could just stand there and think:
Damn, that is one big statue.
Yeah, I’m a heathen when it comes to art. It’s still interesting to see in a “when in Rome (or Florence)” mindset, though.
After the Accademia, we stopped at a little hole in the wall called “La Mescita Fiaschetteria” for sandwiches and pasta. I had one of my favorites, porketta. William got to try a new favorite – cingale. That’s “Wild Boar” for the English crowd. I do have to admit that we didn’t know it was wild boar pasta before we ordered it – we just though it was pasta with red sauce.
La Mescita Fiaschetteria
In the afternoon, we made our way to one of my favorite stops in Florence – the leather markets of the San Lorenzo market. I really didn’t plan on buying anything – but darn if I didn’t come home with a nice brown leather jacket. It’s good fun – but you have to ignore lots of empty complements and boasts about the quality of their water buffalo jackets.
Shopping for leather at the San Lorenzo street market
On the way to the Duomo from the market, we stopped at a baby clothing store with some of the most unique and interesting baby clothing that I’ve seen. It was a challenge to not buy the store out – little William would have been the most stylish 1-year-old in Chaska! We escaped with just a few things including several gifts for others.
Next up was the Duomo – the gigantic Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral. We made it in for about a half-hour before it closed for the evening. For as grand as it was on the outside, the inside is fairly plain – except for the dome. It’s pretty spectacular. Because we weren’t allowed to bring tripods in to the cathedral, I improvised and invented the “Willypod”. I wrapped my Joby Gorillapod around the handle of William’s stroller and was able to take some long exposure indoor shots.
The interior of the Duomo as seen from the entrance
Dinner that night was at the “Ristorante Paoli“. It was described in our guidebook as “wonderful local cuisine served to cheerful eaters by jolly little old men under a richly frescoed Gothic vault”. I gotta say – that about summed it up. We started with their magnificent antipasto and salad, then moved on to our main dishes. I hate to admit that I don’t remember what we had to eat that night. It was good – but I think a bit unremarkable.
After dinner, we made our second gelato stop of the day. Earlier, we stopped at the spectacular “Grom” – where the selections are made on-site and organically. It was fantastic! There were a few varieties that we couldn’t identify – like something that looked like tomato and tasted vaguely citrus-y. It was so good, we went there for dessert after dinner.
The next day was Thanksgiving Day back home – and our last day in Florence. We intended to start the day with a trip to the highly regarded Duomo museum – but discovered when we arrived that it was closed for renovation. Instead, we swung by Dante’s house – which turned out to be less than a block from our hotel. Hmm.. wonder if it was hot in there? We headed down to the Arno River and headed toward Ponte Vecchio – a historic covered bridge now lined with jewelery shops.
Ponte Vecchio
After that, we went to the nearby Uffizi Gallery for another art fix. Every guide book says to get advanced tickets for the Uffizi. We failed to heed that advice and got stuck in a long line. And – like last trip – didn’t end up going to see it. Instead, we hiked over to the much more interesting Basilica of Santa Croce that was a few blocks from there. That was a great stop.. many famous Florentines are spending eternity in Santa Croce. The tomb of Galileo is there, the tomb of Machiavelli is there – and the tomb of Michaelangelo is there.
The Basilica of Santa Croce – resting place of many famous Florentines
On the way out of town, we had a Thanksgiving lunch of – pizza. We scooped up our luggage, got a little more gelato, and went back to the leather markets to buy some belts. After a little haggling in the rain, we made our purchases and tried to find where we left the car two days before. Our navigation was spot-on – we found the car on the first try. We loaded up our little blue wagon, paid the parking, and headed off for Siena.
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