Italy Trip Day 5: Florence

Onto our first full day in Florence, I can honestly say that at the start I am not sure if I intended it be a marathon day, but that's what it ended being.  I remembered that at the time (I'll admit to getting a bit punchy at one point), and I certainly remember it now as it has taken me days just to get through uploading pictures to Flickr from this day.

Our first planned stop of the day was Santa Croce.  In our day-by-day guidebook, it listed a trip to Santa Croce as something to do on Day 3, but when you are talking about a visit to the final resting places of the likes of Michelangelo, Galileo, Machievelli, and Dante Alighieri (though his tomb area was being restored)... well, you think it would be higher on the priority list, but I guess that's really saying something about Florence! Anyhow, with a line-up like that it is no surprise that Santa Croce is called the Westminster Abbey of Italy.  Now, it's not as big or impressive as Westminster (tho that's relative as every church we went into in Italy was impressive), but also it is also not as crowded and certainly easy to find all the major players. 

OK, detour time... if you enter a church, you will inevitably fine beggar woman seemingly in the midst of an emotional breakdown asking for money.  I have grown to be very good at ignoring them, avoiding eye contact and not feeling the least bit guilty.  While I've been doing that all my life (back to being a kid and visiting NYC when Times Square was filled with porn shops), my indifference all was confirmed in Venice when I watched a beggar woman reposition herself outside a Venice church and turn on the fake tears and soft wailing like a light switch.  The only time I caved was in Rome, when the woman actually opened the doors for us.

We made our way back to the Piazza della Signoria and it was kind of around lunch time.  But one thing you'll read in the guidebooks is not to eat at high traffic tourist areas (high prices) and avoid "tourist menus" (not good food).  But after a bunch of $40 lunches (that's US) and double that on dinners (if we were lucky!), it was hard not to pass up a 10 Euro ($13-ish) "tourist menu" combo of a pizza (or pasta), drink (which could be beer or wine), and coffee beverage (or gelato).  In the end, it all worked out great and since you are never ever rushed out of a restaurant in Europe, we were able to enjoy a nice afternoon lunch and this view:

With something in our stomachs, we next decided to tackle the duomo and climb to the top.  I had read that there was rarely a line/wait to climb the 463 steps... and there wasn't any as we passed by on our way to Santa Croce, but sure enough we had about a half-hour wait.  One thing I've learned in climbing up to all these domes is a deep respect for how these things ever got built without modern technology... or if they were built today how much money it would cost.  It is really quite staggering... and sometimes quite literally!  But the trip to the "cupola" was definitely worth the physical exertion for some amazing views of Florence and Tuscany... though there was a bit of a jam near the top as there was only one-way up and down as there kind of needed to be a traffic cop at the top to let one direction go, then the other. 

After climbing back down, we went into the duomo for the first time... though oddly enough, while the stairs led us back down to the church we had to exit and re-enter, which was fine as there was no charge for entry to the duomo (officially called Santa Maria del Fiore), the climb up I think cost 6 Euros per person.  But again, just massive and impressive... as one would expect for what is still the 4th largest cathedral in the world.  While Brunelleschi's dome is an architectural wonder, the artwork that was needed to fill all that space was also quite incredible and looking good (guessing a restoration wasn't too long ago):

After that we headed right across the piazza to the Battistero San Giovanni, which pre-dates even the duomo (we're talking 11th/12th-century), where all Florentine Catholics were baptized through the 19th including its more famous residents like Dante. This cost 3 Euros per person for what was maybe a 15 minute visit, but again an extremely impressive ceiling.

Next, it was back to the hotel for some rest before gearing up for a long walk across the Arno River and up to the Piazzale Michelangelo for a panoramic view of Florence.  In retrospect, it was probably not smart to do the duomo climb and then add a 2 mile way (each way and including a some altitude!) at the end of the day.  But we only had one more full day in Florence and had an afternoon appointment to see David, so what the heck, right?

On the way, we walked along the Arno to the Ponte Vecchio where we made the cross-over then it was up some pretty steep steps to the Piazzale.  As a combo bribe and thank you, I immediately bought Todd (and myself, of course!) some gelato as it was a bit warm too.  But the view, as seen in many guide books, was pretty cool.  The area was very touristy with a lot of folks and tourist buses and vendors of all kind, but to be expected. 

The intention had been to stay for sunset, but it was still hours off even at 5pm-ish... the sun set maybe around 9pm and it certainly stayed light out beyond even that.  So we climbed up further to San Miniato al Monte, according to our guide book, one of Florence's oldest places (construction began in 1018!) and they said "most spiritual" and that was certainly the case as we accidentally stumbled onto the Benedictine monks celebrating Vespers (evening prayer) with Gregorian chant.  Now, I lost my religion a long, long time ago... but it still gives me goosebumps to think of walking through that darkened (and mostly empty) church with the peaceful chanting bouncing off the marble walls.

We spent a few hours just sitting and hanging out in front of the church and enjoying this view:

Being the proverbial "Energizer Bunny" on these vacations, I've been trying to be better about just taking some time to sit down, breathe, and enjoy the place we're at... and our afternoon/evening up here, not doing much of anything (well, a diversion of a very cute guy, perhaps Australian was quite entertaining) will be one of the things I remember most from not only our stay in Florence, but our entire Italy trip.

Hmmm, that seems like a good place to stop... there is still a bit more from this very busy day, but let's just put it as "to be continued..." for now.

Comments

[jen maiser]

Wow, you guys walked a ton. I don't think I ever walked up to Piazza Michelangelo -- we would take some random bus from my memory.