Florence Day 1 and 2

4/18/2007 3:55 PM Good afternoon, Luke and I had a very light day today. We woke at 8.30 or so and got the blog squared away so we could insert it when we found an internet point. So I did that. Then we had some crystal light “ juice” and milk. The milk is kinda nice here. It comes only in liter bottles. It also comes in like liter juice boxes. You make a slit on the top and pour. The milk in a box costs like 0.70 € and the milk in a bottle costs like €1.34 .The milk in the box is also shelf stable, as in it doesn’t require refrigeration. Luke also hung the clothes out to dry. We washed them last night. Put them in the drier TWICE, and they still needed to be hung up. So, that Luke did. They are dry now, some were hung in and some hung out. We headed to the San Zachariah vaporetto stop and took #1 bus to the Ca’ Rezzonico. It is an old rich family’s palazzo (palace) that has been turned into a civic museum. We didn’t have to pay admission as it was covered on our museum card. We saw the palace with all it’s painted ceilings, some original furnishings, but mostly paintings. Glad we went, I guess. We didn’t pay for an audio guide, nor have we yet paid for audio guides as Rick Steve’s book gives a guided tour with text. So, Luke was actually my guide. He read aloud as I followed along around the room. We finished up there and caught the #1 again to the Rialto stop where we decided to run around a bit and look around that area some more. Saw more tourist shops of the same genre as I have mentioned previously. We did make a stop back at the piazza that we spent yesterdays lunch at. Also we returned to the cheese shop which we now know is called Casa Della Parmigiano. We bought more asiago cheese, Fontina Toscana and parma crudo. Which is basically a cheap variety of parma ham. We wandered around more- I was in the lead I thought we were heading back to the rialto area but my senses were off and Luke took us back on course. We basically had to turn around and go back the way we came- that’s how off I was. So we did and at 1330 the fish and produce markets were all closing up shop. Luke suggested we go back to our vaporetto stop, but we were looking at the rialto and there happened to be a traghetto stop right there. Traghetto is used when there are no bridges in sight and it would be convenient to cross the rialto if only you had a boat. Basically it is a “taxi” or a “bus” that just crosses the water for it’s route. That’s all it does. It costs €0.50 and is the cheapest and shortest gondola ride you’ll ever have. It is a boat just big enough for 10 people or so to fit on. It is propelled by 2 gondoliers and takes just a few minutes. Can’t beat the price, I told Luke to enjoy this moment. We didn’t even take a picture. So after we crossed we walked a block to our bus stop and found a bread shop and got a few buns as Luke was feeling faint. He was so hungry his stomach had stopped growling. At the bread shop there was a dude selling a half dozen knock off pursed. I said to Luke “here’s my chance!” He thought I was serious. But we kept on walking. Got on our bus which felt like it took forever to get to our off spot at San Zachariah . We walked home and as we walked by the fish specialty restaurants I actually saw a lobster on the ice bed move! Each of these restaurants has a display table showing how good the seafood is there and what they have fresh in today. Luke said he saw one move on the table- I thought he was pulling my leg. He was not. I saw a lobster moving slowly. They keep him alive so they can eat him at the end of the night. Back at our apartment Luke starts to microwave last nights hodge-podge and I suggest a cheese plate. He liked my idea and made one- a good cheese plate. Better than we have ever had in a restaurant. We put mozzarella (which we got at the Punta store before we stopped back at the apartment) and the Fontina, Parmesano Reggiano, Pecorino Romano, Asiago, dried cherries, and the traili crackers on the cheese plate.. We took a picture of our dinner and the cheese plate. We ate bread along with and I had a glass of last nights left over open bottle of vino. Now we are up to the current time as I am writing, Luke I fear is asleep on the couch as I am writing outside on the huge patio. I still have 1/3 glass wine here. We have to pack tonight and get the apartment. All ship shape for inspection so we get our €300 cash deposit back. We get on the train to Florence in the AM for another fun filled week of museums. We may even go out to dinner there. There should be more dining options there as the whole place can’t be as touristy as Venezia. Good night!
April 19, 2007 1100We are currently on the train to Florence. It is actually a quiet train, and there are no noises of train tracks etc on the train. The scenery is okay, but you can tell Italy is kind of run down. I see lots of rust and there seems to be old dirt. It doesn’t look that black. You see some vines for grapes here and there, I am sure that people can get some big bucks for family owned bottles of wine. The tickets for the train cost us 60 €, which isn’t so bad. I thought. Last night Lisa and I had some free time to burn before we went back to the apartment to clean, so we decided to go to St. Marks Square. It wasn’t so busy, because most of the vendors were going home. The vendors that were there were the people selling bird seed for the pigeons. So Lisa and I decided to buy some. For crying out loud it was only 1€. When I handed the package to Lisa, birds instantly jumped into her hands to eat. It was hilarious. You didn’t even have to put food in your hand, and they would fly up and see if you had anything good to eat. I took a nice video and some pictures. Then Lisa hands me the bag, and the birds fly onto me. They were nice birds, they weren’t pecking out your eyes for food or anything, so it wasn’t so bad. After the bag of food was gone, you could hold out your hand a little bit more, and the pigeons would fly up and look to see if you had any food. After about two tries, they got smart, and wouldn’t fly up. After the pigeons, we went and just sat around near St. Marks. I like to people watch, but I don’t think as much as Lisa. Oh well. So after about half an hour, we decided to head back. I tried to take a back route to our apartment, but it really didn’t work out that way. So back to apartment we went. Lisa and I did most of the housework last night so we wouldn’t have to rush this morning. We basically did all the dishes, swept the floor and took out the trash. After all that was done, we decided to watch some criminal minds. I sure do like that show, but I am surprised that they can keep up with serial killers as a theme for the show. It is nice to watch, especially without commercials. So Lisa also tried calling her mother last night to pass on directions on how to call us, because Lisa is getting homesick. She needs some sort of family connection. So as we went to bed, I couldn’t sleep, because I was almost positive that the damn phone was going to ring, but it never did. So I slept like crap. We did close our windows though, because we read on the weather report online (when we actually had time in between blogging and checking emails) and it said thunderstorms. So there was a positive for shutting them, our stuff wouldn’t get wet, and we wouldn’t have to listen to all the chatter on the ground floor of people/drunks walking by. It almost gets annoying. So this morning, we had some breakfast, something small, finishing packing the bags, showered and waited for the lady to show up. She was right on time, surprisingly. She coughed up the 300 dollar deposit and off we went. After an hour long boat ride, we arrived at the train station. We ran up to the ticket machine and started punching in our stuff. It was about ten after 11 and Lisa was worried we wouldn’t get to the train in time (it left at 11:23) but I figured, why wait around? So we went outside to the waiting trains, and of course, we start to get instantly confused. I tried looking for Florence on the arrivals/departures screen, but no luck. So I noticed a guy standing around to check tickets, etc, and Lisa and I went and ran towards this guy, and asked him where the hell our train was (it said nowhere on the ticket) and he pointed us to the Roma train, so the end destination is the train you are looking for. Well, nowhere on the ticket does Roma appear, so we are glad that the guy figured out where we were to go. So we ran to the tracks and showed our ticket to some dude, and he says, go to car eight. So we ran into the car, and it was basically empty. But we found our seats, and everything was okay. So now are still running the tracks, and everything is okay. I called Freddrico, and told him we were running late. He was okay with that. I think I will ask him when we get to Florence if he can fix our phone so it speaks in English, because it is almost driving me nuts. So that’s about it. Lisa did get to talk to her mother, which was a good thing. Her mom was almost out of her mind I think to get an answer from our phone. I am hating our phone anyways, because it has a weird menu structure, plus we constantly get texts in Italian. Ugh. Okay, well time to go. Ljf
April 19, 2007 Florence 1900Well, we finally made it to Florence- about 2 hours total. When we got off the train, we went to the side entrance of the train station, and Lisa told me to call the guy that we needed to meet up with. So I called him and told him we were at the train station and just needed to get a taxi. He said no problem, see you in a bit. So Lisa and I went around the corner to get to a taxi (through a taxi stand) and there was a block long line of people and suitcases. Oh my gosh, we were screwed. Halfway through the line Freddrico called and asked where we were. I told him half an hour and we should be there. When we finally got our taxi, the guy driving was like a 20 something year old guy. He zipped through small alleyways and pushed aside tourists to get us to where we needed. He even got out of the car and showed us exactly where we needed to go after he dropped us off, because he couldn’t go right up to the door. Jeez. So we walked down this row of buildings looking for #7, and we finally found it and there were two huge wooden double doors. We walked in and we didn’t know which apartment to ring, but before we could think about it for too long, Freddrico asked Lisa if she was here for the apartment. So he took us upstairs to our apartment and showed us around and turned on the AC. Lisa and I then had a dilemma: which bedroom to choose. One had two twin beds but was bigger, and the other had a double but was smaller. We chose the two twins, because I believe it will be more tolerable in there. So we dinked around for a bit, and then we decided to walk towards a supermarket that Freddrico showed us on the map, and started out our trek. When we walk out of the double doors, we are instantly in the Piazza Della Signoria. In Florence, this is THE main spot to be for everything. We have all these 15-20 foot tall statues by Michelangelo and others all over the place. Well actually, some are replicas. So it was picturesque to see all these statues of history, especially old history. So we walked around the square, and then took off to the supermercato. It is probably three to four long blocks to the supermarket. Easy to get to. We also saw lots of salami shops, trattorias, and small markets. We picked up some good deals (especially the milk, which is UHT (ultra high pasteurized) and doesn’t need to be refrigerated. One liter of milk is like .59€. We bought our fill of things (and we actually bought some MEAT) and went to go pay. Of course, we got up to the checkout and we had no bags. So we had to buy some. Of course, now we have about four to five paid bags. We left the supermarket and took everything back home. Oh, I actually bought some beer. Lisa keeps telling me I don’t need it. But I bought four cans for about 1.50€. We got home and put everything back in the fridge and then went back out to walk around. I finally navigated us to the Ponte Vecchio and across it. There were tons of people selling Coach purses, and designer sunglasses, you wouldn’t even imagine. On the Ponte Vecchio were a lot of stores selling jewelry. On the other side of the bridge was of course more tourist garbage: leather stores, gelato stores (4.00€ for a small cup 4-6 oz)(we didn’t get any though I really wanted some), and other trinket stores. We went to go and look at the bridge from another angle and as I was staring down the Arno River, I noticed something moving. It looked like a napkin moving on the bank of the river. It turned out to be a RAT carrying something back to his home. Lisa couldn’t see, because the ledge was too far up and she couldn’t lean over to see down to the Arno. He was the size of a small Nerf football. After that we left for the apartment. When we got back to Piazza Della Signoria, we stopped and listened to this guy play guitar. He had an amplifier and just a guitar. We gave him a couple of euros. He was actually pretty good. Lisa wanted to pay 15€ for the CD. I told her we’d take it back to the apartment and then return it telling him it didn’t work in our CD player. I’d really copy it to the computer. Then we went back to the apartment. And that is now. Time for supper. My stomach hasn’t been agreeing with me with the food that I am actually making. I think I miss french fries and fried food. I was almost dying to go to McDonalds. So we have some meat now, and some basic pasta sauce. We shall see. So far we are doing pretty well for not eating out. I think the first night in Venice we ate at some Trattorias, but Lisa and I both got smart and stopped eating there. Just a simple sandwich was about 4-5€. What a waste, especially when you have to stretch out your money for 30 days. Okay, time to post this. Thanks for listening. I am not done yet. Lisa writing now. I agree with everything Luke wrote. I want to tell you about the building we are staying in. It is like 4 stories tall. The huge double doors to get in from the outside of the building are like 15 feet tall. They are so heavy you think you’ll open them slow so they don’t swing so hard that you can’t stop them. But they are heavy. You have a key to get into that door. Then walk 10 feet past a row of shiny gold mailboxes. To a 20 foot tall iron gate, it looks like prison bars. You also have to have a key to open that. It too is heavy. Then walk up 2 LONG flights of stairs. We are on the second floor though it feels like 3. When we look out the window we can’t see the ground unless we lean over and look over the edge. The buildings are too close together. I am very happy with this apartment. It is rustic. We have an old long dark wood table with a bench seat on one side and 4 old leather chairs that look like they were bought at an antique store. Surprisingly our fat butts are supported on them. Lets hope that continues. The kitchen has a “hotel fridge” you know a half one that men keep in the basement for beer. We have plenty of silverware, dishes, cookware etc. The only things I’ll gripe about the kitchen is: no forno (oven) and not enough counter space. The apartment is decorated nicely with little old looking pictures and groupings of pictures, old pieces of coordinating furniture. There are 2big old dressers and matching wardrobe in our bedroom with the 2 twin beds (also has TV). The double bed room has a chest high smaller dresser and TV also. The bathroom has a Jacuzzi tub/shower combo and a weird wash machine double antiquey sink and bidet and toilette. That’s about it for notables for the apartment. The keys for the actual apartment are large and weird as was the keys for our place in Venezia. The locks are different too, there is no turning door knob- just a knob that is used to pull the door shut/open. All in all we’re very happy with this apartment. NOW it is time for Luke to post for “free” perhaps in our entry way where there is a Wi- Fi signal. Ljf
Friday, April 20, 2007 3:25 Buona Sera. It is afternoon now and Luke and I have had a fun filled day of museums and churches filled with religious art and wandering around. We woke up with the cars and people talking at 7 am. Please also note that we slept poorly due to the sinking feeling in our beds, the warm room temperature and the crappy loose feather pillows. Luke said he would take a pillow from the couch and use that tonight. OK then, back to this morning. We got up with the sun today at 7 am via the alarm clock. We showered in our Jacuzzi tub and dealt with the shower head holder not holding the head upright. I hollered at Luke to get a screwdriver- he found none, I dealt with it. He returned to cooking a warm breakfast. It is hard for me to say this but we are getting tired of eating bread and cheese for breakfast and lunch for this last week. He threw a spin into this am’s routine; toasted bread, butter, jelly (which we bought last night for €1.50) and the last of the asiago cheese. Luke then fixed the shower head for his shower. We were out the door with wheat thins (we brought with us from walmart) and 2 apples. We forgot lots of stuff this AM: water, the mappa, my sunglasses etc. Oh, well. We tried to get free internet outside our apartment at the sidewalk café by getting a cuppa café. We were unable to as they were not open. It was interesting to see the piazza nearly abandoned and quiet. Off to the Accademia, we made pretty good time walking 15 or 20 min. So we arrived to the Academia, it did not look like it housed David or it was the museum visited by a million people per year. There was hardly a sign above the entrance or anything. So we found it and we were 1 hour early- great. We walked a bit found a tabacchi shop and had espresso for € 0.80 each. I actually had 2. We had to ask for latte’. It was really stiff and like less than an ounce. Oh well. I was sure hopppin after the second. We wandered around and looked at some of the shops that were less touristy and more for everyday Florentians. Our favorite shop of the spree was a video store. We looked at the Italian/European titles and how they were different from the titles of what we know. We saw a whole section of Roberto Benini movies. That was fun.We went in to the Accademia (€ 6.50 plus € 3.00 reservation fee) and Luke got an audio guide for € 8.00 for 1 player and headphones so 1 could listen on the audio guide and the other could listen on headphones. We will get smart and next time bring our own earphones and not pay the price. Luke says the audio guide was not worth it. I tend to agree. Rick didn’t help us here with the written tour because we couldn’t find it in the book. Damn it. We, of course, found it after the fact. We still read it though. The original David was not as breathtaking as I thought it would be. We sure got our time with him. We looked at him seated, standing, from front/back, a digital moveable model etc. One of the other highlights was the stone Prisoners by Michelangelo. It was people emerging from stone like they were trapped. I guess Michelangelo thought that he was working as an extension of God, letting God guide him and doing His will with the stone. There also was LOTS of artwork that would have been behind the altar of medieval churches. The same old stuff repeated, Jesus on the cross with a slit at his ribs and a skull at his feet, Mary with and exposed “water balloon” breast with JC feeding, saints surrounding JC. I was not excited to see these pieces of artwork that had been removed from their environments. They all felt like repeats. I found that I liked the realistic looking ones that had simple lines and were not overfilled with too much subject. We also went to the plaster cast room. It was a large room filled with hundreds of busts. All ages were featured; young and old ladies and men, children and grandparents. There were also plaster test pieces of works I’ve seen before. We left the relatively small Accademia after only about 90 minutes. We then had on the itinerary Rick’s renaissance walk. That took us from the Accademia to the church of San Lorenzo and markets of the same name. The church was where the Medici’s went to church. I liked the grey and white gothic architecture, the huge paintings in the little recesses where people pray (don’t know what they are called) were tucked in so it didn’t upset the flow of the huge church. There were special wood carved pulpits and other carvings done by Donatello. We paid € 2.50 per ticket.Then we went to the Medici Chapel.(€ 4.00 each) This was a “chapel” that the Medici’s made in honor of them selves and their rule. It was really really tall we can’t agree how tall it was. Even if I tell you the right number it wouldn’t seem tall enough. It was under construction and had lots of inlaid marbles, they were puzzle pieced to fit so tight in these gorgeous patterns on the floors and in family crests on the wall. There were Medici statues in the walls- some places were empty where a big statue should have been. I don’t know if this was just not done/filled or if they were under construction. We then went into my favorite part that was in the next room. It was Michelangelo’s Day/Night, Dusk/Dawn. A Medici prince was placed behind each pair of statues. Supposedly Michelangelo knew these 2 Medicis pretty well, can you imagine designing a room for the tombs of your buddies. I really liked the Rick Steves description as read by my lovely husband. We even had some English tourists come up to us (they overheard the description) and asked for clarification about the statues. We were glad to answer and to even speak congenially to another human being (in English). We spent a lot of time in that room despite the 50 Italian sixteen year olds that were so noisy and disrespectful. An Italian curator came in and yelled at the kids. We sat behind the altar area and mused at the statues. The theme was basically that time was the enemy. Rick said that if you are approaching middle age or a possible mid life crisis that one might well avoid the chapel. Michelangelo was also facing the ticking clock. He was doing the tombs of his contemporaries, also it was said the patrons who paid for his work even died while he was working on this monumental project. He did not finish the statue of the Madonna and a big 2 year old JC- the patrons had to go nab it out of his apartment when he left to do the Sistine chapel which was his last project. Can you believe? We then hit the bathroom and checked the gift shop (where the post cards were too much). Then we went to the San Lorenzo market. Saw lots of leather, lots of purses, illegal sunglasses and wallets. The guys carried just enough illegal stuff to carry discretely. They had belts wrapped around their hands and sunglasses strapped to a home made cardboard display board that could be collapsed and carried when the cops show. Oh, and they did show. Luke is certain that they had “lookouts” who hung around the cops where they were stationed and then sent a signal or text message to the guys selling. I looked at some of the designer wallets and they wanted 25 € and then I said no, they asked me how much I wanted to pay. Kept asking, I just had to walk away it is amazing how well they spoke English. I have only seen African Americans sell the contraband. They must all work together or work in some organized scheme to sell the stuff. Interesting. I did buy some wallets from a vendor- not name brand but Italian brand leather wallets. They have smaller wallets that are just for cards which is what I use mostly. So I bought those. I am wondering if I will buy a purse. They have so many nice ones. Luke and I continued to wander on back streets. We ended up toward the green and white marbled Duomo, took some pictures, but that is it. We’ll tour later, perhaps with Mom and Dad. We did achieve much more than our itinerary called for. We wandered more back streets, Luke drank all the water we bought. We enjoyed wheat thin crackers while sitting on a stone “bench” that lined the Emperio Armani store. With in our site there was a Louis Vittion Store, and a something else store. I can’t remember the name. We went eventually back to the apartment in a round about way and had a little lunch of crushed fresh garlic on toast with cheese. Boy was it garlicky it was almost like hot spicy. I still taste it well. While I was taking a break from typing talking to Luke on the couch we heard Vivaldi’s “Spring.” Luke asked me where that was coming from- I said “ The computer…duh” (you see the MP3s were on random playing). I go over to the computer to prove it too him and I was wrong! The violins were coming from the street. So I tell Luke to quick get his shoes on so we could go listen. We did and caught 2 young men playing in the street for change. We listened for 10 min. or so. We also did a fair amount of people watching. Then back up to the apartment to wait for my mother and father to arrive from the aeropuerto. We’ll go get a drink at the café and wait for them and Luke can use the free internet hot spot and post this and yesterday’s blog. Talk to you later. ljf