It’s the 2nd time I’ve been to Florence and I
fell in love with it this time. March is much colder but there are not as many
people. We started with a walking tour –
the duomo (Santa Maria Del Fiore) is gorgeous!
The Bronze Baptistery doors are really cool! We visited the Uffizi Gallery & Accademia.
They have tons of Renaissance art & of course, the David. My favorite statues
were of the unfinished slaves. Michelangelo used to go up into the mountains to
pick out the marble, he said the marble spoke to him & he was letting out
whatever was in there. This piece he
never finished (hence the slaves..because they were not free). It was cool – it really looked like they were
trying to escape.). We saw Ospedale
degli Innocenti (Hospital of the Innocents')--a place where moms could drop off
their unwanted babies by putting them on a secret wheel in the opening of the
wall. It dates from the 1400's, in the 1600’s bars were put in place so that
only newborns would fit through and be left because too many babies were being
abandoned this way. Florence is
beautiful & it has lovely bridges. We
walked across Ponte Vecciho (a bridge that dates back to 996) – it still hosts
lots of merchants (high end now). The
food in Florence is amazing – I didn’t have one bad meal. I did try rabbit, hare & ossobuco – I liked
the ossobuco, the rabbit & hare were okay.
I have to mention that Italians
drink wine with dinner & espresso after. I ordered diet coke with dinner & hot tea
after. Which do you think is
cheaper?? Wine/coffee – 5.00 and Diet
coke/hot tea – 15.00. Every time I ordered the diet coke - the waiter would
just shake his head in disappointment.
San Gimignano is a small walled medieval town. I loved this
place! We had lunch in the center of town;
in an outdoor café (gelato was amazing!). We climbed the stairs of the church
tower – what a great view of the countryside from up there. There is good
shopping with lots of pottery shops – wish I would have had more time here.
Lucca – is a walled city.
We were there over the weekend & there were lots of people out
running, riding bikes & having picnics on the wall. We climbed the Guinigi tower – there are lots
of trees & a small garden at the top.
Again it was worth the hike – the views were gorgeous! We saw Volto Santo di Lucca (The Holy Face of
Lucca), it’s a corpus of a crucifix, located in the cathedral of San Martino.
Medieval legends stated that it had been sculpted by Nicodemus (who assisted
Joseph in depositing Christ in the tomb) and brought to Lucca in AD 742. Puccini is from Lucca – they have statues
& museums of him. Some of the
restaurants are named after his operas. Also,
Napoleon’s sister lived in Lucca – we saw the palace she lived in.
Chianti – is a wine region in Tuscany, the views are
beautiful. Rolling hills with vineyards
everywhere – unfortunately rolling, windy roads in a bus, not so great – I would
say half of the bus had motion sickness by the time we arrived. I thankfully sat in the front seat ;) We stopped at Castello D’Albola winery. 1st we did a tour, saw the
property, the cellar & how the wine was made. Then we had a wine tasting with
lots of prosciutto & bread in between.
Mmm – great way to end a trip!
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