Florence

After my last post Cate and I went out to Murano island and watched them blow glass.  We wandered the streets for a while and tucked ourselves in and out of glass shops.  I bought a few small things and chatted with a really nice man selling the glass his father blows.  It's fun having a face to put to the art.  Cate and I were really smitten with the chandeliers, but couldn't figure out a way to get one home.  It is probably just as well.  :)

We left Venice on Saturday about midday and took the train to Florence.  The train ride was very comfortable and allowed us to see a lot of the countryside.  We were so pooped though that I didn't get any pictures.  At some point we went through the mountains.  Every now and then we would pop out of a tunnel, see snow covered hills and then pop back into a tunnel.  Florence has been MUCH warmer than Venice though.  Venice was bitingly cold.

After a neurotic, harried taxi ride we made it to the hotel.  Our hotel (Plaza Hotel Lucchesi) is right on the Arno river and within walking distance of everything.  We wandered out for dinner Saturday night, but both ended up going to bed early.

Sunday it rained, but we slogged ahead anyway.  We wandered down to the Ponte Vecchio (a bridge with shops on it) and then on to the Uffizi, Palazzo Vecchio, Palazzo Pitti and a few other places.  We have done a LOT of walking and it seems that Italy is not handicapped accessible.  There are stairs everywhere.  It explains why Italians are all really fit!

This is a Michaelangelo sculpture in the Palazzo Vecchio.  Go, Michaelangelo!!

The dome of the Duomo is pretty much the iconic landmark of Florence.  It is higher than everything else and very noticeable.  It is also quite lovely!

 The Duomo is HUGE!  It is also spectacular.  White and green and pink marble cover every surface and everything is carved.  I think it was begun in the 1200's and finally finished in the 1800's.  The bulk of it was done in the 1400s.  Amazing that they could build like this back then.

 The museum had a bunch of the original carvings that had been pulled off and replaced with copies.  The weather is hard on them.  I liked this one of the cows and sheep.

 The museum also had a bunch of models that had been carved to show possible facades.  These models were at least 5' tall and were carved in intricate detail.  Imagine this much work for just a sample to show what it might look like.

The streets all look like this.  It is like a Disney set.  This is actually one of the wider streets.  Most of about one car wide.  Cars, buses, bikers and walkers all seem to zoom in and out of each other.  So far we haven't seen anyone get hit (although we do seem to hear a lot of ambulance sirens).  I understand that Rome is worse.  Won't that be exciting?



We are off to see Michaelangelo's David today and then will train down to Rome.  If the Rome hotel has wifi I'll post more soon.  As I have taken approximately eleventy billion pictures, I will inundate you with more once I get home.  Internet is really slow here. 

Italy is GREAT!!