Home of the Renaissance

May 05, 2015

Home of the Renaissance - Florence

Starting with Mr. Steves "In a single day (in Florence), you could look Michaelangelo's David in the eyes, fall under the seductive sway of Botticelli's Birth of Venus, and climb the modern world's first dome, which still dominates the skyline" Well, we did exactly that.

After breakfast we packed up and walked the mile or less to the Assisi train station – Donna walked over to see church of San Angello (church within a church) while I stayed with the luggage. An easy day of travel from Assisi to Firenza (Florence), only one train, it was on-time and in 2.5 hours we were in Florence. The very helpful lady at the "I site" got us pointed in the right direction and lots of other good info - we bought our Firenza passes - and caught our bus for the short ride up to our b and b, Fiorenza and Elena our gracious hostess. Fiorenza is a home outside of the city center about two miles – the mother and father live on the first floor, the b and b rooms and dining area are on the second floor and Elena and her family (husband, two young boys) live on the top floor. This was our nicest room so far (and they have all been great), and our best breakfast…fresh fruit, croisissants, home made treat, etc. Elena was super organized and had a map ready for us with all of the important info. carefully notated in her neat handwriting. She also did our laundry for us during our stay and gave Donna a parting gift. She was a sweetheart. Florence is much smaller than Rome (only about 370,000 people), but the city center is very crowded with tourists (including us).

Our b and b is above the city, and after settling in to the b and b, we decided to walk over to the Piazza Michaelangelo to take in the great views of the city, and also to stop at the San Miniato church where we heard monks doing a Gregorian chant service. After "feeding our souls" at San Miniato we walked down to the city, and went to one of Elena's recommended restaurants, Tratorria Casalinga - the owner asked if we had a "reservatione", we said no, and he said he couldn't help us, but then said if we wanted to wait, it might be about twenty minutes. It was worth the wait, a delicious meal - most everyone else that come afterwards without a "reservatione" was turned away. Walked all the way back to the b and b, working off dinner.

Over the course of the next two days, we did the tourist thing and climbed to the top of the Duomo, took in the David at the Accademia, numerous works of great art at the Uffizi Museum, toured the Galileo Museum (less visited and our personal favorite), took in the Pitti Palace, and visited the
San Croce church (numerous famous folks are buried here, such as Fermi, Marconi, Galileo, Michaelangelo….). Gusta Pizza was our second night's meal sharing a table with many American college students studying abroad, and our last night was Tratorria San Santo Spirito, with delicious food and large portions, where we were again very lucky to grab a table without reservations. We walked probably ten miles a day at minimum, and had gelato at a place we walked by on the way back to our b and b to counterbalance the walking (or was it the other way around). This was also our "shopping destination", where Donna "splurged" on a beautiful leather jacket (half price of course)– she looks elegant in it – , numerous scarves, and some poncho type garments for her and the girls,. Our suitcases were bulging at the seams. Florence is beautiful, but I /we was/were a bit museumed out by the end of our time. All in all though, a wonderful time though in "the birthplace of the modern world".