During Fabienne's visit to Rome (see last post) we went up to Florence for a day trip. We took an early morning train in, spent the night, and took a train the next day to Venice.
Florence is a small city and most of her sights are right in a line from the train station, but we didn't do them at all in order. We were all over the place juggling opening hours and lines. But again, it's small so no big deal. Rome about the ancient Romans, Vatican, and the political capital; Florence is all about museums and churches. It was the center of the world during the Renaissance. While Venice is overall the most expensive city in Italy (IMO), we actually spent less money there because we spent more of our time walking around enjoying the city's beauty. Compared to everything we did in Florence which had a fee attached. Fabienne wanted to see as much as possible and they all nickle and dime you with their three to ten euro entrance frees.
Since we only had one day, I made Fabienne choose between the Academia and the Uffizi (the two largest museums in Florence). We went with the Uffizi, which I think was the best choice, but that meant we didn't get to see David. I've seen him before, but it would have been nice to catch up on old times. We did see all of his replicas in various places so that is almost as good. The Uffizi is a great museum filled with works even a uneducated schmuck like me can recognize, but is was crowded. July is a busy tourists season in Europe.
Naturally we went in the Duomo with it's beautiful pink and green marble facade. This was the first domed ceiling, if you don't count the Pantheon, which no one ever does. It was built in the Renaissance and the technology of how the Romans built domed ceilings had been lost in the dark ages. The Florentines were so confident someone would figure it out that they build their church without a roof and waited for the technology to be invented. It took many years, but eventually Filippo Brunelleschi was visiting Rome and saw the dome of the Pantheon and immediately knew how to complete the Florence Cathedral. It took several more years for him to convince the city to give him the contract, but eventually Florence got their Duomo.
(Inside Florence's Duomo)
We visited Opera di Santa Croce, the church where there are the tombs of Michelangelo and Galleleo. There are also some important fresco and the cowl and girdle worn by St Francis of Assisi. There is also a leather school attached to the back. We got to walk around old men hand making leather goods as well as a very expensive store.
(The tomb of Galleleo)
(The cowl and girdle of St. Frances of Assisi)
In between we saw some other important sights. We saw Basilica of Santa Maria Novella, Palazzo Pitti, Palazzo Vecchio in Piazza della Signoria, the Baptistry of the Duomo, and a few others.
Ponte Vecchio is the covered bridge that goes over the Arno. There are stores here, especially goldsmiths, and people hang out at night. There was a band performing on the bridge when we were there.
(Ponte Vecchio)
For a while now I have had the benefit of having Daniele tell me all the best restaurants, but he doesn't know Florence. So I followed all the general rules: away from the main tourist hub, not right on a square or anything touristy, better if the menu is not in six languages. So as it got closer to dinner time we wondered away from the Duomo and on the other side of the river. There were still some churches near the Ponte Vecchio, so we walked some more. Just as Fabienne was saying maybe we should start working our way back, a presumably drugged out man did what I call the “zombi walk” out of a side street. That's when I knew we were close! That street had a restaurant. A very drunk British woman who had just walked out saw us looking at the menu and gave it a recommendation. So we went for it. We split a bottle of their house white wine and a cheese platter. I got a zucchini crotchet thing, and Fabs got ravioli-- best meal I have had in a long time! They had both Italians and foreigners eating there. It was called Trattoria I' Raddi. Next time I'm in Florence I'm definitely going back... so good!
All the pictures from this day are in my “Fabienne Visit's -Firenze ” album:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20110709FabienneVisitSFirenze
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