Glockenspieling: Fall in Firenze

We bid a fond Ciao to our friends and Pisa and hit the road for our short drive to Florence. The drive went smoothly until we hit the historic city center, which was where our latest AirBnB was located. The city center is a pedestrian zone only unless you park in one of their parking garages. We would have to trip the sensor (which would issue us a ticket if we didn't park quickly) and find our way to the address given by our host. The problem was that my GPS kept trying to take me down streets that were closed. And by closed I mean completely barricaded. I kept trying different ways around but she just kept rerouting me to the closed streets. Finally, quite by accident, I spotted a garage about 400m from our hotel so I parked. A short walk later we were in our hotel and I was on the balcony with a much deserved glass of wine.

The view from our balcony.

Since we were staying in Santa Croce square, our first stop the next morning was the Basilica that we could see from our windows. The outside is stunning and we were looking forward to seeing the inside and the tombs of some of the greatest citizens of Florence - Michaelangelo, Fermi, Marconi, Gallaleo, Dante and Machiavelli. Unfortunately, it was still closed to visitors because a man had been killed a week before by a piece of the ceiling striking him while he was inside. Tragic.

We stopped and saw Dante's house...

We wandered a bit more but when we stumbled on Pinocchio we had to stop and try his nose on for size. Pinocchio was created in Florence and the story has many pieces of Firenze (Florence in Italian) built into it so you stumble into him everywhere. Fun Fact : Pinocchio is the second most translated book in the world, second only to the Bible.

Our next stop - the Campanile di Giotto. We got in line but after waiting 20 minutes and not getting anywhere we decided to keep moving and come back later.

We wandered around the Duomo (which is quite a feat as it is almost as big as a normal Italian square...

As we got back to the Piazza della Signoria and ducked into a covered patio restaurant for some lunch. Just in time as it started to pour shortly thereafter. We enjoyed a hearty lunch of Pizza and Pasta with a great view of the Palazzo Vecchio. The 14th century Palazzo is currently used as the citys town hall.

The rain had stopped while we enjoyed our lunch but the temperature had dropped and it was still pretty dreary so we (I) decided that we would head to the famous Uffizi Gallery for a tour. One of the largest and most famous galleries in the World, the Uffizi has countless collections of priceless works, mainly from the Italian Renaissance.

The ceiling and hallway were almost as impressive as the artworks stored inside.

A couple of the many Madonna and Child paintings.

Filippo Lippi's Coronation of the Virgin

Primavera

The Birth of Venus

A quick peek outside said we were better off inside. And we got a birds eye view of the Ponte Vecchio (the oldest bridge in Florence and a symbol of the city).

Back to the art - this time Michelangelo's Doni Tondo.

And finally Da Vinci's Adoration of the Magi.

At this point, we were all a bit over all of the art, impressive though it was so we bid ciao to our guide and hotfooted it over to see THE statue of all statues - David. We had heard that it was best to visit toward the end fo the day as the lines were shorter but we were cutting it close. Thankfully, there was no line when we walked up so we just sauntered in and marveled at the greatness that is Michelangelo's David. Standing underneath the 17 foot tall statue you are overpowered not only because of its size, but because of it's attention to detail : the veins running down his hands and legs, the slight indentations that are his fingernails, the intricate curls in his hair. And it is all chiseled out of marble.

It had been a long day. We were tired, cold and a bit wet

and we had all decided that it would be nice to cook dinner at home and call it a day. But first, we had to climb that Campanile, which we did, all 400 steps. Begun by Giotto in 1334 the campanile is considered to be the most beautiful in Italy and was probably even designed for a more decorative than functional purpose.