Florence
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Day 7 (Saturday, September 6, 2003) - Today would be the start of one of the more challenging portions of the trip - my first experience at driving in Italy. We left Rome in the morning and took a train headed for Florence. I had an interesting experience on the way. I pulled out a book that I was reading called Investigations by Stuart Kauffman. It's a popular science book about the origin of life. But soon after I started reading I started to get sleepy and dozed off for a bit. When I woke up at one point to talk to Ikuko, a man sitting next to me who appeared to me an Indian gentleman asked if he could borrow my book. I said "sure" and handed it to him since I was too tired at the moment to read it anyway. But after taking a brief nap I awoke again and was all set to continue reading. I was hoping the man next to me would notice that I was awake and volunteer to return my book. No such luck. He was totally engrossed. Finally I struck up a conversation with him by asking if he found the book interesting. It turns out that he was a biochemist who was headed for some scientific conference in Bologna and was involved in some of the very research that was written about in the book. Anyway, I tried to suggest that he let me know when he reached a good stopping point (the implication being that I wanted my book back) but his reply was, "Oh, I'm sure that I can't finish the book by the time I have to return it to you so I'm just skipping around. There aren't really any stopping points." He was completely oblivious. I wasn't really in the mood to insist that he return it so I went without until we reached Florence. Anyway, once in Florence, we found the car rental agency and rented our car. It was a very small Hyundai. We loaded up our luggage, got in and started the engine when I realized that this car was a manual. "Ok, clutch on the left, first gear up and to the left..." I hadn't driven a stick shift for years and here I was in a foreign country ready to pull out of the garage onto the busy streets of Florence. Anyway, it took a minute or two but it all came back very quickly. We followed the directions and got 90% there when the quality of the English directions we received from the hotel became a real problem. We ended up wandering around for about an hour before we finally found the Borgo Sicele. It was an old farmhouse about 30 minutes south of Florence in the middle of the Chianti region (famous for its wine) that had been converted into apartments for tourists. It was a beautiful place and it would be home for the next 4 days. Once we got settled in, our first challenge was to make our way back to Florence. We took the suggestion of the women who was running the hotel and parked about 5 minutes outside of Florence and then caught a bus into town so that we could avoid having to drive downtown. It was fantastic advice. Once in Florence we headed straight for the famous Vecchio bridge which is a bridge over the Arno River that is full of shops on either side, mostly jewelry shops. From the Vecchio bridge we headed toward the famous Duomo with the octagonal Baptistery out front and a large bell tower. It was too late (and we were too tired) to explore the Duomo so we just admired it from outside. We planned on coming back anyway. From the Duomo we continued on and went to the Galleria dell' Academia to see Michelangelo's Statue of David. He was undergoing repairs (notwithstanding his successful bout with the Goliath, David has apparently been through quite a bit since he was sculpted in the early 1500s) and had scaffolding covering his left side. By then it was getting late so we walked the walk back to where we had to catch our bus and headed back out of town to where our car was parked. Along the way we passed a grocery store and decided to do some grocery shopping and Ikuko volunteered to fix dinner back at the Borgo Sicele. Grocery shopping is quite an adventure when you don't understand anything. Anyway, we successfully completed our mission and headed back to the apartment where we fixed dinner (a delicious play of...what else...spaghetti) and headed for bed. |
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Day 8 (Sunday, September 7, 2003) - We still hadn't seen everything we wanted to see in Florence so we headed back into town for another full day of sightseeing. Our first mission was to stop at the main station to get some tickets for the next leg of our trip to Venice 3 days later. As we rode the bus into town, we headed up the main street where most of the shops and boutiques were located and noticed that everything was mysteriously quiet. Apparently, Italians take the Sabbath much more seriously than we do in the United States. Anyway, our first stop was the main train station so that we could buy train tickets for the trip to Venice 3 days later. From there we walked down to the Santia Maria Novella cathedral but they weren't letting tourists in since it was Sunday and they were holding regular services. From there we headed over to the House of Medici which had been transformed into some kind of museum. The items on display all appeared to be various ornate vessels with what looked like bone fragments in them. None of the descriptions were in English though so I'm still not sure what they were exactly. Afterwards we headed back to the Duomo but it wasn't scheduled to open until 1:30, probably because of mass. While we waited we stopped in at a restaurant right on the Duomo Plazza for lunch. Once it opened we went inside to check it out. Afterwards, we decided to climb the bell tower - all 400 steps. It was exhausting but after several rests we finally made it to the top and the panoramic view of Florence was well worth the effort. Next it was off to the Uffizi museum but along the way we stopped at a street vendor we saw the evening before so that Ikuko could buy a leather bag that she had her heart set on. I'm not sure what she enjoys more, getting a new bag or talking the price down as low as she can. Anyway, when we arrived at the Uffizi we realized how popular the museum was. The line was divided into those with reservations and a much longer one for those without reservations. Of course we fell into the latter which means we were in for a bit of a wait. And after all that I didn't think it was worth the wait. Maybe I was just tired after having spent a day at the Vatican but I was honestly beginning to wonder if the Italians ever painted anything other than the crucifixion, judgment day, etc. Every room we went into in the Uffizi museum was just another room full of Christian paintings with the same 10 or so themes. After the Uffizi we headed back to the Vecchio bridge. Ikuko had her heart set on getting a bracelet at one of the many jewelry shops that line both sides of the Vecchio bridge. We shopped around a bit and tried a few on and finally found one that she liked. She was quite pleased. Next on our schedule was to have dinner at a restaurant called Dante's but we had some time to kill and a thunderstorm had moved in so we headed into a cafe to kill some time. After the rain let up we headed down the street to Dante's for some dinner. From there we caught a bus back to Borgo Sicele and turned in for the night. |
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Day 9 (Monday, September 8, 2003) - Today was primarily a car day. We started off by heading about a half hour south To the small but beautiful town of Siena. After driving around for a while looking for a parking spot we finally ditched the car and headed for the Santa Domenico cathedral. From there we decided to head toward the Duomo. Siena was a very hilly city and, although we could clearly see the Duomo from the Santa Domenico cathedral, we had to take a roundabout path through the narrow back streets to reach it. Along the way, we stopped and took several portrait photos of each other on the streets. The Duomo was beautiful, both inside and out. There wasn't too much more to see in Siena and we had a busy schedule ahead of us so we headed back for the car. Our next stop was San Gimignano, a city famous for its many towers. Parking was a hassle again but we parked in a lot at the base of the city and climbed up to the city center. We had hoped to stop in a restaurant to grab some lunch but quickly figured out that restaurants and many shops are closed on Mondays so we settled for a little sandwich shop that was open. The sandwiches were so so but the gelato was delicious...After lunch we continued toward the city center. Outside one of the churches in town a man playing Spanish guitar caught my ear. He played very well so I listened for a while and then bought one of his CDs. We still had a long drive to Pisa so we headed back to the car for the next leg of our drive that day. Finding the Tower of Pisa was no easy task. The freeway to Pisa was a little tricky and once we exited the freeway we still had about a 30 minute drive ahead of us with no directions. But it was an exciting moment when we rounded that corner and saw the tower from a distance. Before we left for Italy we heard from some friends who had been to Italy that the Leaning Tower of Pisa really wasn't that big of a deal. We couldn't disagree more. It was one of our favorites from the trip. To get to the tower you have to walk down a long street with lots of tourist shops. Once we arrived we went to the office next door to inquire about climbing to the top. We were told that the next group with an opening wasn't scheduled to leave until 7:30 (about an hour and a half later). Although the tower has been stabilized enough to allow people inside, there still is a limit to how many people they allow in at any one time. Anyway, we got some tickets and did a little shopping and picture taking while we waited. Climbing the tower was a real treat for the senses. You have to climb an internal spiral staircase to get to the top but you can't really see outside. The angle of the tower makes the climb feel very strange. At one point the steps are very strenuous and another you feel like you are falling against one of the walls and at another you feel like the steps have become much easier and then it all repeats again until you reach the top. Although it was beginning to get dark by the time we reached the top, the views were still beautiful. After we climbed back down we decided to skip dinner and just grab a bite after we got home since it was already getting late. The trip home was also tricky and after we made it back to Florence we spent about a half hour driving around lost but we eventually found the highway that would take us back to the Borgo Sicele and headed home for the night. |
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| Day 10 (Tuesday, September 9, 2003) - Today was a day that was entirely reserved for shopping. Not just any shopping, mind you, but special trips to remote (but very cheap) outlets. Ikuko was armed with a guide for Japanese that revealed the location of the outlets but finding them all was still a bit tricky. Our first goal was the Prada outlet which was really just a very large room at one end of the factory where you could buy Prada goods for 1/3 to 1/2 of the usual price. There were no signs outside identifying it and the only way we could definitely identify it when we pulled in was by the large Japanese tour buses that were parked outside (the Japanese come in to shop by the busload...) After Prada we headed to our next stop (about a half hour away). It was a placed called "The Mall" and it was a collection of many designer outlets. We grabbed a bite to eat at a restaurant in The Mall before heading on to one more designer outlet before heading back home a bit early to pack our suitcases and get prepared for the next leg of our trip to Venice. |
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