Florentine adventures

Despite reports that Italian trains were incredibly unreliable, our train from Venice to Florence (in Italian: Firenze) arrived and left right on time. Of course while the train itself was without issues, the train station was much more confusing and for a while we had a hard time just figuring out where to buy tickets for Rome and then where to catch the bus to get to our hostel.

Nevertheless we prevailed and found our guest house without too much trouble. I had taken the liberty of buying a map of Florence (I did the same in Venice and sort of continued this habit throughout our trip) and therefore was the self-appointed navigator. After check-in we went in search of food which turned out to be only slightly difficult as it was a Sunday and there were not too many restaurants open. One restaurant was suggested to us by the proprietor of the guest house but without a reservation there was not enough room for five. Luckily we only had to go a bit further down the street to find some good Italian food. Like France and its food, I don't think we could have gone wrong wherever we went but I still enjoyed some delicious ravioli with walnuts and cream sauce which, apart from the pasta we cooked in Venice and the pizza we ate, was our first real meal in Italy. Verdict: delicious.

Ponte Vecchio in full morning sunshine. I insisted on walking to the
other side so that I could get a photo in "proper-lighting" and was
very pleased with my result.

Where in Dijon all museums are closed on Tuesday, in Florence (and possibly the rest of Italy) they are closed on Mondays. This meant we couldn't go to any museums on Monday. In lieu of museums we simply did a little bit of exploring, visiting Ponte Vecchio, a medieval bridge that still has shops built on it which was at one time the common practice; Piazza Della Signoria and Piazza Del Duomo. We waited in a very fast line to go inside Santa Maria del Fiore which is increidbly ornate and majestic on the outside but not particularly impressive on the inside. We considered going to to the top of the Duomo which offers a magnificent view of all of Florence, as well as a peak into the hills of Tuscany, but the line was obscenely long, very slow and it would have taken hours just to get inside let alone to the top.

Instead we popped back to the guest house to pick up a few things that were forgotten, like a camera battery (not mine) and after a bit of rest we set back out, heading for the massive market by Saint Lorenzo. As far as markets go it was not my favorite because there wasn't much variety between sellers who sold similar looking leather jackets, leather bags, scarves and jewelery but it was still fun to walk through.

Afterwards we got lunch and then attempted to go to Piazza de Pitti and the many gardens there but when we discovered that entry cost 10 euros decided it wasn't worth it and instead took a bit of a nap on the area in front of the Palace.

Dinner Monday night for me was not quite as good as Sunday's probably because it wasn't a family restaurant but I did enjoy the tiramasu and afterwards we all felt like we were in a very satisfying food coma. After doing some last minute research regarding Gallera Dell'Academia Monday evening, on Tuesday we set out early to get in line to enter the Galleria. This was necessary as in Florence the lines are incredibly long to enter museums and reservations (when possible) are strongly recommended. We had looked for openings for a reservation but found none and instead braved the lines. We were rewarded for our early rising and by the time we reached Academia, we rounded out the first 10 in line.

A street artist works on a reproduction of Girl with a Pearl Earring.

Academia is most famous for housing Michelangelo's David but other than some of Michelangelo's abandoned projects and religious paintings, there isn't very much to see. David was very much worth the entry and I found the statue to be incredibly impressive and much larger than I had thought. As we were some of the first in the museum, Academia was not crowded and we could admire David without being pushed or feeling to hot. As far as sculpture goes it was striking and I found myself marveling over how even the veins on  David's hands and neck were defined. As sculpture can't exactly be retouched it was amazing to see such a massive statue in perfect detail.

After Academia we headed towards the Duomo, actually a part of Santa Maria del Fiore, which thankfully had a very small line but which grew to be much longer about 10 minutes after we got there. The climb up wasn't too bad except for the parts where people were also coming down. I was able to sort of squeeze into a corner but still felt slightly violated by the hordes of people who pushed past me to get down. As for the Duomo, it offered a great view of all of Florence and I can imagine that were it less smoggy the Tuscan hills would have been beautiful to see.

On the way back from the Duomo to the guest house we stopped at a cafe to get some fruit cups as we hadn't really had much to eat for breakfast. The fruit was good but when we received the bill and found that the fruit cost 10.80 I was a mixture of shocked and livid because the prices were hidden and the fruit was not worth nearly 11 euros.

As for checkout, it was a little confusing mostly because a time was not specified and we did not pay upfront (which felt quite strange on our arrival) but everything worked out. The only trouble was what to do afterwards with all of our backpacks and a train at 4:40 in the afternoon. We attempted to find a park and relax in, as we had done in Venice, but discovered that you have to either pay to enter a garden or a park or they are private. Apart from how ridiculous this was in principal, it resulted in us walking from garden to piazza only to find out that the garden was private or that the grass couldn't be sat upon.

In the end we parked ourselves on the grass outside of the train station, got some pizza (always good) and then went back to the grass by the station until our train till Rome came.

Overall Florence was a beautiful city with rich history in art but one I think I would have enjoyed more had I taken a day trip to Tuscany and seen the beautiful countryside.

Apologies for the lack of photos of Florence, I promise more will be coming with Rome!