I had read you need days and days in Florence. Well it’s off season now; so we raced through the city to see it all in only two days. After we finally arrived following an interesting Hertz car experience (see previous post); after checking into a B&B our first mission was to go to Hard Rock. I was so very hungry. I had to go to a reliable food source. It was amazing after days of no food.
However that evening it was raining a lot. We cabbed it to the Boboli Gardens and Palazzo Pitti. This is across the Arno river in the city. This was one of many Medici palaces we would visit this trip. It has gardens to rival Versailles. Since it was raining so hard, we skipped walking to the famous Piazza Michelangelo overlooking the city. Instead we walked back over the famous bridge of Ponte Vecchio bridge and oriented to the city on a slow walk back.
The next day we hit the city running. We ventured to the most famous spot, the Duomo (the top of the church). We got a rare reservation to climb the 400 stairs to the top of the Duomo to see the city. It was grueling but we made it. Look at the views:
We then visited all the Cathedral sites including the amazing museum. The museum had the original doors of the Cathedral/ Baptistery as well as some moving artwork:
Since I’ve found myself becoming a huge fan of the Renaissance, I had to visit all the Medici sites. That included seeing two different churches, a library and their crypt / tombs.
After an amazing lunch at Ciro & Sons, I made us venture to more art. We made it across the old city to the Academy. This is an art museum that made a household name for housing the Michelango statue of David. This one statue that lived up to all the fuss.
We rushed over to Santa Croce, a church that has multiple famous tombs as well as functions a lace school, nunnery and art museum. It has great records of the Florence floods as well. (Let’s appreciate Jordan for saying I’m good and drinking beer on the square so I could take my time).
We then had time, much to Jordan’s dismay, to visit the Palazzo Vecchio. This building was used as and still has function as City Hall as well as being a living quarters for the Medici clan for a time.
We finally ended up strolling around the city, catching a pub and finding some food that was too good. I finally got to try the wild boar pasta! Even Jordan scraped up desert at this dinner.
We had a decision to make that night - to visit more things the next morning or get to Venice early. We have a love affair with Venice so we got up early and made it happen in Florence; guaranting an early arrival in Venice. We visited one of the best art museums in the world. To see these Renaissance works almost alone( we were really early) was moving. Thank you Uffizi. Then Jordan made me visit the Bargello statue museum alone. To stand alone in a room full of Michelangelo statues was breathtaking to say the least. This museum was diverse so I loved it. We then walked a few yards to the Galileo Science Museum. These artifacts, while different, were so cool and completed the idea of a Renaissance man (human).
We then grabbed a lunch and bought our train tickets to Venice! Thanks Florence for over-feeding me and being amazing. We appreciated you. Even if you didn’t capture my heart like Rome, I wouldn’t hesitate to come again - during the off-season.
Steps: 35k
Wine bottles: 6 (we deserved it)
Note of Record - of the best wines of our life:
