Finishing in Florence

The last two days in Florence. Wednesday the 5th we woke up early. Sounds really bounces off the narrow streets lined with brick buildings, even with the air conditioner in our room working. (And hurray for that!) We ate breakfast and headed to the Duomo. Got in line at about 9:30 and were lucky to score a seat around the side of the cathedral, in the shade. It opened at 10, free admission. There are not many works of art inside this Duomo anymore, they have been moved to a nearby museum. (Florence has some 50+ museums). But it was interesting to be inside the big building, and look at the dome from inside. We only stayed inside for maybe 20 minutes, and then we decided to climb the dome. I made it up to the walkways that circle the dome – although I really wanted out by now, the stairs were narrow and the walkway barely a foot wide. The claustrophobia reared its head by then. I took a look at the climb up to the outside and decided I’d had enough. Worked my way around to the exit and was grateful when I got outside. Sara continued and got some lovely pictures from the top of the dome.

It was barely 11:30 by then so we dedicated the rest of the day to shopping. We browsed our way through the jewelry shops, looking at charms, and the leather shops near Santa Croce. Save room in your suitcase for something made out of leather! We had marked one glove shop near our hotel for a stop back later. In the window, they had, in cashmere lined leather: red, pink, dark pink, light yellow, dark yellow, terracotta, orange, light green, dark green, olive green, light blue, teal blue, navy blue, tan, dark brown, lavender, dark purple and grey. (They don’t bother putting the black on display). They had the same spectrum in unlined gloves with some piercing at the cuff that looked like lace, but was the leather of the glove. Then they had driving-style gloves with more of a mesh back, but all leather. Then they had heavy winder gloves in a spectrum of colors. The selection was mind-boggling! Good prices, too. The cashmere-lined ones were 35 Euro.

We saw shoes and bags and jackets galore. It was lunchtime, so we pulled into Trattoria Pallotino on the corner of Via Torta, and eventually ordered and got a good lunch. They were busy. We got a half-liter of wine but it took 15 minutes for the glasses to come. The food was good, when we finally got it. Time now for our after-lunch gelato, and we aimed at Vivoli, the most famous gelato place in Florence. Took a left out the door of the restaurant, (if only we’d taken a right) and using our map to guide us, set out for Via Isole della Stinche. We kept overshooting our turns, roads marked as main streets on the map looked like alleyways to us & we kept walking. Eventually we made a big circle, back to Via Torta, and I turned around & there was where we’d eaten lunch. And, right next door, was Vivoli! The gelato was great.

Refreshed, we settled into some serious shopping. Walked into one store and the sales guy took one look at Sara and said “I have the perfect jacket for you.” He was right. Beautiful light brown, short jacket that zips up the front. The leather is so soft. Well, it did go home with her. Further on she found the charms that she’d been looking for, and even a bracelet for one of them.

After this burst of energy, we headed back to the hotel to rest. After our nap, we wanted to get dinner, but first stopped in an internet café near the Uffizi (also very near our hotel.) So nice to use broadband, I cleaned the spam out of my inbox & caught up on the family situation in 30 minutes. Takes me hours in Germany on dial-up. We strolled past the Uffizi and found where we’d need to pick up our tickets the next day. The Uffizi sits at one end of Piazza Signoria, there’s a replica of David and many other large statues. We wandered around & looked at them, then decided to have dinner in a restaurant on the other side of the square.

After dinner we walked past our hotel in the other direction, overshot where I thought we were again, and came back by the river. We had our navigation down pretty good, throughout the trip one of us was right at all times and the other didn’t take too much persuading to change direction. I have learned that if I feel strongly that, based on the map, we go one direction, it’s usually the opposite direction we need to go. Sometimes I even remember that.

Thursday July 7th. After breakfast we walked back up half a block to the olive oil store we’d seen the night before. They had lovely oils and olive oil soaps & lotions. Then we went back to the glove store where Sara bought a pair of the cashmere-lined gloves. I was holding off making any major purchases to see what I need in Munich. Plus, all our clothes just showed up the Friday before I left – finally! – and I need to see what I’ve got again before I buy anything new.

We stopped back at the internet café for a quick email check, for me. The folks back in Rochester are not doing so well, more about that later. We had a light lunch at the café then headed to the Uffizi to get out tickets and browse the Renaissance. It is a great collection and well worth seeing. We were a bit tainted, however, by some of the sardonic commentary in the Birthday Boy movie (about the David). The lecturer, commenting on the maleness of the David and other works, says that ‘even the women are just men with breasts stuck on’ and shows a couple of pictures of sculpture that illustrate just that. And that’s what we kept seeing, in many of the paintings. We’re pretty sure, all issues of perspective aside, that the painters never really saw actual women. It got to be a bit funny.

We ended up spending over 3 hours in the Uffizi, which surprised both of us. We burned out on paintings of the Annunciation, Coronation of the Virgin and Adoration of the Christ Child by about room 25. So we started speeding past those.

Afterwards we went back to Carabe, and instead of gelato had Granita. It was wonderful. We then walked towards Santa Croce and found the leather school that shares quarters with the church. Beautiful, colorful, innovative products on display there. Sara was sure that, with all her shopping, she’d need to buy a new bag to take everything home in. She didn’t find anything that was quite right to fit her new jacket and her laptop, so we headed back to the hotel empty handed. Woke from our nap to the phone ringing, it was Logan calling to tell us what had happened in London that morning. He thought we might not have heard about it, and thought we might need extra time at the airport the next day.

We headed out for dinner, and ended up at Trattoria 13, on Via del Porcellana. It was a beautiful restaurant with an open courtyard in the back. We had a great dinner. The tip to the restaurant came from the Bon Appetite magazine that Sara lugged with her, along with Rick Steve’s Tuscany and Fodor’s Tuscany and the book about the Palio. I had borrowed Frommer’s Florence, Umbria & Tuscany from a friend, brought that with me. We decided that the Frommer’s is the best overall guide – it includes maps, hotels, dining, sights and shopping. Rick doesn’t shop, and Fodors doesn’t have maps. But it was nice having the others too. We’d read more about what we saw in the evening.

We walked back along the river and ended up back at the internet café, which has live jazz music. Sat there for almost an hour. It was nice to be out but jazz, yeech. Lots of solos with the tune and beat wandering around all over the place. Yeah, yeah, I display no soul. But I do like blues.

Friday morning we packed. It was another cool cloudy morning. Sara got everything back into the bags she had originally brought. We double-checked to make sure there was nothing being left behind, but it was a miracle. Got a taxi to the airport, and waited in a long, slow moving line. Finally got to the gate & the place was late coming in, and we sat on the runway for a while before heading out. But we finally got going around 2, getting to Munich at 3. Sara made her connection to get back home, and Logan picked me up at the airport. Yay, I didn’t really want to lug my stuff home on the train. Plus it was rather shockingly cooler in Munich. It must have been 28 in Florence, and the pilot announced it was 16 in Munich as we touched down through the rain clouds.

Again, it was a difficult re-entry to Germany. Italy is warm & welcoming, if inefficient. Germany, pretty much the opposite. Plus I caught a cold. But I’m doing better now and it has warmed up again here. Sitting on the balcony to write this report and we have a nice sunset going. This part I like!