Firenze

Trip Start Aug 21, 2006

Trip End Dec 18, 2006

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Flag of Italy Florence, Italy
Sunday, September 17, 2006

Arrived at the train station in Florence on the 16th about mid-day. The Eurostar train, second class with assigned seating, was such a smooth ride. As we rose in elevation coming into Florence, we traveled through green hilly countryside with ochre, orange and yellow stucco buildings nestled into the hills the storm clouds shrouding the view and streams of water cascading off of the train.

It was grey and overcast in the city when I emerged from the train station and headed directly into the Tourist Information (TI) station to obtain the city map. I am staying in a bed and breakfast on the 4th, top floor of a building on Via Roma right next to the Duomo. It took about 10 minutes to walk there from the train station. Lots of brick and stone in the city giving it a monochromatic quality.

The room is modern and spacious and has a roof deck and an automatic espresso maker (lots of different coffe drinks for free!) Franscesca, a charming young Italian woman, met me when I arrived and gave me the run down on how the B&B works. She is very fluent in English and was able to give me lots of tips for local sights and the more mundane such as the best laundromat! Later on in the early evening, she joined me and some of the other guests near the patio in a lively discussion on many current events and traveling in general. The bells of the Duomo went off while we all were on the deck and it seemed like we were right inside!

My afternoon was spent doing laundry at a 'real' laundromat (not my hotel sink).

01-tracy post uffuzi

It's comforting to experience the smells of home rather than hand soap! Extended travel, I'm discovering, is quite different than a traditional holiday where you can hopefully escape some of the mundane. Aspects of real life sneak in such as the need to have clean clothes...to make travel arrangments etc. I scheduled a 'holiday' from my traveling on Monday. I'll be wine tasting in Tuscany, listening to opera and then taking a cooking class with a company called the Accidental Tourist. I can't wait!

I enjoyed another excellent plate of Lasagna in one of the squares last night under the covered patio roof listening to the sound of the rain beat down.

This morning, I got up very early to stand in line at the Academia (Galleria dell' Accademia) where Michelangelo's David and his unfinished 'Prisoners' can be found. In Florence, the smart thing is to make a reservation to see the top sites. Unfortunately, I arrived late and without much pre-planning so I was unable to take advantage of this convenient service. In any case, I was inside the Academia first thing with only a small wait. The Renaissance paintings were nice and 'David' was spectacular. They had a computer model of the sculpture next to him created by some folks at Stanford. It allows you to rotate and change the lighting of the sculpture to inspect in from different perspectives....very cool.

I then walked over to the Uffuzi Gallery, an amazing collection of Italian paitings including works by Giotto, Leonardo, Raphael, Caravaggio, Rubens, Titan, Michelangelo and Botticelli. Due to it's populatrity, I waited in line for 3 boring hours and then had a nice lunch on their roof patio and very leisurely viewed the excellent collection of paintings and sculptures.

I enjoyed some of the best gelato so far of my trip after the gallery. The rain had stopped and I was inspired to snap a few photos of the city!