| Glenn's Florence Journals #3 4-13-02 to 4-14-02 Saturday morning in Florence and it's still wet and dreary, but it is forecasted to clear up by tomorrow. Showered and full with breakfast we were off to see the sites, even if it was wet. Our first stop in any major city on Saturday morning is the market. The market is housed in a warehouse where you can buy meat, fish, fresh fruits and nuts, and flowers. With our mouths watering and our eyes bigger than our stomachs, we bought some bananas, an apple, grapes, strawberries, nuts, and some dried apricots and bananas. The market is also a fun place to see the daily hustle and bustle of the locals as they go about their food shopping. We then visited the Piazza del Duomo, and went inside the Santa Maria del Fiore Gothic Cathedral. While we were there, we went downstairs where you can see tombs and some of the original cathedral that was built in the 14th century. Like many other places, it has been built over, (This Cathedral was built over the Basilica Santa Reparata) if not due to different rulers over time or other events that cause change. Then we stopped in the Uffizi Gallery (Rated one of the "must see" museums in Florence) to make reservations for Tuesday (Closed on Monday's). This is where we found out about the strike on Tuesday as the museum would be closed due to it. The good news was that this was culture awareness week and the museum would be free, except for the charge to make reservations. Sounds good to us!!! (We made reservations to avoid the 2+ hour waiting lines to get in to the place.) We walked across the Ponte Vecchio, enjoyed the view and the stores, and continued on by the Palazzo dei Pitti. We continued our stroll through San Spirito and San Frediano around to Ponte A. Vespucci. By this time the rain was coming down pretty good and we were getting soaked, so we headed home. Tonight we caught up with Shayne. The girls went out to get "take away" Chinese, which they brought back to the hostel, and we enjoyed sitting around the hostel meeting people and watching movies. Its' Sunday and what did we awake to? Yeah!!! The sun!!! We showered up and met Shayne downstairs for breakfast. Shayne did me a big favor this morning by allowing me to use her bowl and spoon to enjoy cereal with milk. This is a big deal as it is another food type that I eat quite often in the U.S., but had only had one other time in the first 3 weeks of the trip. The corn flakes tasted great!!!( Thanks Shayne!!!) Our plan today was to see the Galleria de Accademia, which houses Michelangelo's "David". Shayne had other plans so we said that we would meet up around 3:00 p.m. back at the hostel to take a trip to Fiesole. Plans change!! Once outside we quickly realized that we could not spend this sunny day inside, so we opted to skip the museum and visit the Giardino di Boboli (Gardens). We walked past the Duomo and the Uffizi Gallery (where the line was at least 2 hours long) and across the Arno to the Piazza Pitti. While we were walking past the Duomo who did we run in to but Shayne. We told her our plans had changed and we were heading in the same direction as her so we headed off together. For 2 Euro's each we entered the gardens and walked around for hours just enjoying the gardens and the view back towards the city. Shayne had then read about (in Rick Steve's book) the best gelato in town. We headed off to the Piazza San Spirito to find this place. As we entered the Piazza we found a little market (like a Sunday flea market) with everyone selling used items. We strolled around the market, had lunch, and headed home from there. Shayne then took off with a plan to meet us at 4:00 p.m. to go to Fiesole. We met back up with Shayne, headed off to the bus station, bought a 60 minute bus ticket for 1 Euro each, grabbed the #7 and off we were. Fiesole is a little town about 8km northeast of town. Once we arrived in Fiesole we found the information center, grabbed a map of the city, and llearned about the things to do. The primary thing to do was to walk up the hill where you could get a gorgeous view of Florence. From the other side you could get another gorgeous view of the countryside. Of course right as we got to the top of the hill it started raining. What luck!!! It didn't last long and off we were to enjoy the rest of the views the city had to offer. We ended up staying in Fiesole for dinner. This worked out well as we enjoyed a view of Florence at night with all of the lights glimmering on, what looked like, a very quiet little city. Another beautiful view which we wished we could capture all of with our cameras, but we can not. We grabbed the #7 bus back to town, headed back to the hostel, and relaxed until bedtime. |
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| An awe-inspiring fresco inside Firenze's Duomo dome |
| A huge bronze structure rebuilt in the Boboli Garden. At the back were two tiny torsos, one frontal and one rear view! |