"Exploring Florence - Day 2"
Trip Start
Jun 06, 2008
1
17
18
Trip End
Jun 24, 2008
Florence,
Italy
Monday, June 23, 2008
We locate the palace and gardens - and the gardens go straight up, forever, it seems. Finally we reach the top, and of course, there's a beautiful view of ancient Florence making the climb worthwhile. In the garden rooms is the porcelain museum, and you can see the beautiful pieces the Medicis ate from and adorned their rooms with. That was a nice break from all the statues and paintings. Going down is much easier, and so DH and I take off to make our way across the river once more.
Now we discover we're in another notable part of town, the Piazza della Signoria. Here we find the Loggia dei Lanzi, an outdoor sculpture gallery, most of which depict violent scenes. A favorite piece of work here appears to be "Perseus", depicted holding the severed head of Medusa. Catty-cornered from the Loggia is the Palazzo Vecchio, the Medicis' city hall. Outside this building is a replica of "David" on the site where the original once stood. The original guy had to be moved for safekeeping when he was damaged in a 1500's riot. One more thing of note on this square is the Fountain of Neptune.
Ok. We've looked at all this stuff on the piazza, now it's time again for rest and refreshment. The square is ringed with ristorantes and cafes, and we succumb to the temptation to patronize one of these tourist eateries, rather than walk a little further to one on a back street. Big mistake. I realize we're not seasoned world travelers, but we did learn you're much better off as a rule, staying away from places that cater to tourists. The waiter was obnoxious, and wouldn't let us order just one pizza to share. So I had to pick out another one, and accidentally pointed to one with (gulp) anchovies. DH was trying to be a sweetie and kept offering to swap pizzas - he doesn't have a problem with little hairy fishes - but I was hot, cross, and in a snit over the horrible waiter, and I refused his offer. My mother calls that "cutting off your nose to spite your face". **smile** Dave kept saying his pizza was tasteless; I just kept cutting around all the fishes on mine, which gave me about 4 edible bites. Do you know anchovies can't be just picked off? They leave that nasty oil behind... well, enough about that.
Once again, we climb aboard a hot, airless bus to go back to the hotel. We've eaten - sort of - and knowing we've got some Cokes in our room, we ask at the front desk for some ice. "Sorry, the bar is closed". Well, is there ANY way we can get some? "Maybe the bar down the street will let you have some of their ice." **sigh** I made the mistake of converting the outside temperature I had seen on a sign to Fahrenheit... 100.4 degrees. No wonder we were so hot, and I was so cranky! Anyway, forget the ice - we just took cold showers again and drank our Cokes neat. Later, when it was dinner time, DH and I opted to stay in the hotel and eat in the "restaurant". I use quotation marks because this is not a real restaurant - there are no cooks here. What you have is a menu that uses pictures instead of words - we saw these menus everywhere we went, and they're always the same. These are prefab entrees that can be nuked by any employee. See what I have sunk to by not wanting to go back out in that heat?? I figured the pizza earlier had ruined my last day of Italian food anyway. In actuality, the hotel food was tolerable, and we didn't have to get all hot and sweaty again, and the girl waiting on us was very sweet.
Now it's time to start packing up our bags. Tomorrow our flight for Paris, the first leg of our journey home, leaves at 0730!.
Boboli Gardens
