The view of the Florence Duomo Dome, as from our hotel balcony
Michelangelo’s Bandini Pieta in Florence
Basilica of Santa Croce
The Boboli Gardens in Florence
Firenze!
The first evening in Florence we had an early dinner with our youngest son and his wife and daughter who is now 21 months old. That was nice – I had veal meatballs with mashed potato and spinach; the meatballs were pink in the middle but they and the sauce they were on were delicious. We had dolci, of course; a bowl of fruit (raspberries and blueberries with lemon sugar). Then we walked back to our hotel. In some parts of Florence there is no Internet, so it posed some challenges. The streets are mostly narrow and dark, with narrow footpaths. There is lots of traffic, and parking that would not be allowed here!
The breakfast buffet was all right; I’ve had better, but I’ve certainly had worse. The coffee doesn’t taste very good. Now that we are older, these things become really important: the breakfast buffet, the rest rooms, and how comfortable the beds are!!
We had booked with Get Your Guide to go to the Uffizi Gallery the next morning. Although we’d booked for 10:30 am, we needed to be there by 10:15 and meet our guide to get the actual tickets. We walked there, but there were crowds of people, and when we reached the piazza, we didn’t know where to go. I realised, too late, that you have to meet your guide at the meeting place 15 minutes early, and in the crowds it can be difficult to find the meeting place, and the guide.
We found the guide, a bit late, and got our tickets; we assured her that we’d been before, and didn’t need an audio guide. But there’s no printed plan now, and some things have moved, so we were a bit flummoxed.
We got through the bag check and got the lift to the second floor. This has the Vasari corridor, with rooms of specialty paintings in rooms off this corridor. The crowds were immense: it’s really hard to see the famous Botticelli’s: the Birth of Venus and the Rite of Spring; I still marvel at how beautiful they are, and how happy the women look. We also see the famous Michelangelo Tondo, and then make our way downstairs to see Caravaggio’s paintings – the Medusa, the Sacrifice of Isaac (which always makes me cry,) and the Fortune Teller. By the time we leave our allocated 2 hours is up. It’s time for lunch, and we go to Trattoria Alfredo, where we order far too much food: I order Pasta Alfredo, which is fettuccine pasta in a very creamy sauce; JD has an escalope of chicken, and we order insalata – a large beautiful salad. There is a basket of bread, and olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Yum. JD has ordered white beans, but we don’t need them we have room for dolci, of course, and share a delicious strawberry tart with coffee.
Then we walk back to the hotel. Later we join our family for dinner at another Trattoria. What did I eat? I had Osso Buco with Risotto Milanaise. It was quite nice, I had to order it once to try it again. The nice mixture with lemon rind and parsley (gremolata) that you sprinkle on top was missing.
The next day I was trying to work out what to do next when we got a message from our family suggesting we meet them for coffee. We set off again, to a nice place with plenty of room for our granddaughter to run around. We shared a delicious pastry with berries and custard.
Then we set off for the Boboli Gardens, which we hadn’t been to before. We walked to a bus stop which was near their Airbnb apartment and the American Embassy. The building for the latter is strictly isolated, with streets around it barred to cars, and pedestrians avoiding it. This building is beside the Arno River.
Then we catch our bus. Our son has thoughtfully bought 4 bus tickets which he validates on the bus. Entry to the Gardens is free today (Liberation Day?)
The gardens are lovely but there are very few flowers. It reminds me of the vast garden area at the Palace of Versailles. We walk up a long slope, supposedly to a café, but alas when we get to the top there is a grassed plateau (keep off the grass) and a beautiful view. We walk some more; everyone is looking for the café but it is closed. We keep walking through the exit to the Pitti Palace (I’ve been there before), and eventually came to a café for lunch, a part of the same chain where we’d had coffee earlier.
What comfort! We were seated outside in the shade, my granddaughter went to sleep in her push chair; JD and I had omelettes with asparagus and toast. They were pretty good. Afterwards we had more coffee, and, of course, dolci which we shared – a delicious cheesecake and others. JD ordered hot chocolate, and it came in a large cup, and seemed to be very rich melted dark chocolate!
Then we set off walking again; we were going to catch a bus but ended up walking to their Airbnb apartment. It’s within a courtyard. They were up lots of stairs; thankfully there were handrails. On the way there JD’s niece had been in touch, and he’d agreed to meet them for dinner. She is coeliac, so that posed a bit of a challenge.
We walked back to our hotel. I was just totally exhausted, and there were just two hours before we needed to set out again, but of course I got changed and even put on some makeup.
It all worked out fine, although the food was disappointing. I’d hoped to have the nice wild boar pasta that I’d avoided earlier, but I ended up with a veal cheek pasta which wasn’t very nice. There was no dish of parmesan to go with it – unusual.
The next day (Sunday) we were trying to go to 11 am Mass at the Basilica of Santa Croce, about a 24 minute walk away according to my phone. But JD was late, and then couldn’t find his glasses. He’d put them in his sponge bag while showering; now they were padlocked in his main backpack, and furthermore, once retrieved, they needed cleaning. Of course.
I wanted to see the Giotto frescoes in the Bardi Chapel – that was my ulterior motive for visiting this beautiful church. But it didn’t open till 12:30. So we had lunch at a very busy restaurant nearby. I had Spaghetti carbonara and JD had crostini with pậté. On the house we were given were glasses of a fortified wine – like communion glasses. It was delicious and tasted like sherry, only much better than sherry usually does. Then we got tickets to the Church; sadly the Bardi Chapel frescoes were “in restauro”, as is so often the case in Italy. But the visit was very worthwhile, and it’s a beautiful church, and there are many famous tombs there, although I had a bit of an upset tummy after our lunch. We were so tired that we took a taxi back to the hotel.
That evening we were to meet our youngest son and his family at the Mercato Centrale, a kind of food court. We made our way there, but it was very crowded and a bit of a madhouse, so after looking for the exit we met them instead at Trattoria Zaza. What a find! Like many places, this was rambling with inside and outside areas, and a queue to get in, but it was wonderful. I had veal meatballs (fully cooked this time) in a delicious mushroom sauce with rosemary potatoes. And some yummy dolci to follow.
The next day was Monday, so opening hours were strange. We went to the Archaeological Museum in the morning, taking a taxi from Santa Maria Novella Stazione. What a find! Of course the taxi dropped us at the wrong museum, but it wasn’t far away. There were several school groups there. Some of it was In Restauro, of course, but much not and it was a great place to visit.
And what a delightful lunch we had afterwards! I had risotto with saffron, shrimp and balsamic vinegar; JD chose lasagna, which I thought was very boring of him, but it was a chicken lasagna, without tomato sauce, and was delicious too. Afterwards we shared 3 Petit baba au rhum with our double espressos.
The museum closed at 2 pm. We had hoped to see Michelangelo’s David, but although nearby, the academy gallery closed early too. So we made our way back to the hotel. I must say this gorgeous fine weather with highs of 24° C is pretty tiring!
That evening would be our last with our son and his family. Instead of eating out we walked to their Airbnb apartment where we shared pizza, wine and cannoli.
The following day was our last in Florence, before catching a 16:28 train to Roma Termini. After breakfast JD did the washing; he had found a laundrette near our hotel, and he’d been there before, so although there was a queue there, he was favoured ahead of others and did not have to wait! While he was gone I bathed, tried to figure out packing, and read my Kindle on the balcony outside. There were alarming coughs coming from the room next door, but I was the only one on the balcony.
After JD returned, we checked out of our hotel. They were happy to stow our bags, but there was no identification to separate our luggage from all the other bags there, except for labels on each bag. Three of the four were padlocked.
Then we set out to walk to the Duomo. We queued for ages, eluding beggars after JD had given his cash away. The queue actually moved quite quickly. You didn’t have to pay to enter the cathedral, but of course they did the bag checks. Actually it’s not that beautiful inside! I didn’t see the a Virgil/Dante memorial that I remembered from earlier visits. It was quite disappointing – I guess I remembered climbing the dome (twice) and seeing the famous Pieta.
So we went to the nearby Caffe Opera – another good experience. We each had a ham and cheese croissant – beautiful, and a fruit salad (mine had whipped cream too). Then JD had some chocolate gelato, and I had a double espresso.
Then we walked across the way as instructed to redeem our tickets for the Duomo Museum. The Santa Reparata meeting point was just across way from the café, so we walked and found the Duomo Museum. You used to be able to enter the Duomo and admire this Pieta! I had great trouble even finding it on the internet. I think it’s known as the Bandini Pieta, This museum contained it, and there weren’t crowds of people, so we could sit and look at it. It’s very affecting, although I found the one in Milan affected me more. This museum was very good, actually.
After that our tickets included a visit to the Baptistry, where we hadn’t actually been before. The famous ceiling is, of course, in restauro, but it is very well explained with an explanation of all the paintings. So we were glad that we went.
Then we walked back to the hotel, to be ready to collect our bags and catch our train to Roma.
While in Florence we did some shopping. I had seen a handbag I wanted to buy on our first evening, but after that I couldn’t find one that I wanted to buy. But we did buy two beautiful wraps (for the cruise, of course!). One is cream and made of lightweight wool, the other is blue and is a representation of Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night. They are both beautiful, and although it was very hot in Florence, we did use them on the cruise. We missed out on seeing Michelangelo’s David this time, and it’s a shame about the crowds, but Florence is still a wonderful place.
Next stop: Roma!
Classic Barbarian 