I was told by many not to miss out on going to Florence. “Oh, Florence is beautiful”, “the museums are stunning”, “they have the best gelato ever”… etc etc. Well, that’s nice. What did I think?
Many years ago, I started a tradition, which turned into a habit, that when I attended a musical, and if I liked it, I bought a hat. Actually, if there was a hat for sale, I usually bought it.. I continued that tradition - or habit - when I visited a foreign country. I bought a hat in Malta and in Assisi. However, I did not buy a hat in Florence. Let’s see if I can explain why.
First of all, I checked out of my AirBnB in Rome, which really was a lovely experience. Perfect location, nice and roomy, great amenities, etc. That was my first AirBnB experience and I was grateful that it was a positive one. I took a taxi to the train station and hung out there for a few hours before I had to catch my train to Florence. I booked a later train as my check in time at my AirBnB was at 3:00pm, and the host was adamant that I was not early. The train ride was lovely, just 2 stops before Florence.
When I got to Florence, I got out of the train station and on to the streets of Florence. The AirBnB host told me that her place was 10 minutes away on foot from the train station. So, I put the address into Maps and started off. I can tell you know, I’m pretty tired of using Maps. I’m always walking the wrong way, or the street signs aren’t clear, etc. Of course, I started walking in the wrong direction. I finally turned myself around and headed in the right direction. Of course, wrong turns were taken, the time to my destination kept going up, etc. When I finally got to the street, I went to what I thought was the correct address number. Did you know that on several streets in Florence, there are two sets of numbers? One in red and one in black. I didn’t know what the distinction was until before I left Florence - Red is for Business and Black is for residence. Well, I didn’t know that. I walked up and down the street trying to figure out where this address was. I was actually inside the wrong building at one point. The host kept sending me the same message over and over regarding the address of the building - and that in itself was frustrating. When I finally found the address, the host was like “I don’t understand how it was so difficult for you’ and I was like “Well, I don’t live here!” And she was like “You look very tired” and I was like, “No, I’m frustrated” and she was like “I don’t know why, it’s so simple to get here!” And in my mind, I’m like “lady, you are on your way to getting a not-so-good-review from me for communication”
So, about the AirBnB. Let’s start with the keys - there were 5 keys needed to finally enter the apartment - or hovel - or whatever you want to call it. Yes, I guess it was an apartment. Perfect example of an apartment in a town like Florence. Yes, it was sorta comfortable, yes it had running water, yes it sorta smelled, but not in a terribly bad way. Anyway - yes - 5 keys. She basically showed me things that had to be done, pointed to the flimsy binder on the table and took off - leaving me with a key chain with a re poof on it and 5 keys. I was like… well… OK here we go.
I turned the AC on and got settled in. It was just a place to crash, so really, it wasn’t bad. The door to the apartment opened out of the kitchen and into an ante room. In the ante room was another door - to another apartment. For example, as I was trying to leave one day, I couldn’t get the door out of the ante room to the hallway open - I tried all 5 keys etc and I was starting to feel like I was never going to be able to leave this apartment. All of a sudden, the other door opens and a lady comes out and says “Problema?”and I explained I didn’t know which key - she took the keys out of my hand and showed me. I thanked her in Italian and she went back into her place waving her arms like any good old Italian lady would do.
When I returned that evening, with a melting cup of gelato in my hand, I had to maneuver back to the apartment in the dark, as none of the hallways were lit. It was really dark. I had my backpack and a cup of gelato - which was melting everywhere - in my hands and trying to open these 5 doors for the first time, most of which was in the dark. It was really scary, and I’m not easily freaked! Before I move on from this experience, I noticed this sign on the door
Comune (in Italian) - noun. commune [noun] a group of people living together and sharing everything they own. municipality [noun] a town, city, or other district that has its own government.
So, it looks like the AirBnB was part of a commune. Many people gave it 5 stars. To each his own, I would suspect
So, enough about the AirBnB - I’m still trying to figure out what sort of rating I should give this place.
Florence. A lovely little town in Italy. For me, it seemed like an extension of Rome, but smaller and just as crowded - oh, and lots of leather. I was in the middle the tourist area, which I guess is fine for your first time in a new city, but in this case, you’ve seen one tourist part of a new city, you’ve seen them all - and Florence was no exception. By the time I left the apartment, it was time for dinner. The one thing I learned from Rick Steves video on Florence was that they are know for their beef. So, I thought that would be a good place to start. I picked a place randomly in one of the piazzas for dinner and had a T-bone steak.
Although I thought I order it medium rare - it was too done for my taste. Still it was good. After dinner I wondered around some more and then headed back to the apartment.
After the issue with not being able to get into the Forum without a ticket in advance, before I left Rome I tried to get a ticket for the Academia Galleria if I was going to see David. Of course, there were no tickets available, so I went to Expedia and booked a 2 hour walking tour of Florence that ended up with a “skip-the-line” ticket for the Academia Galleria. That was a pretty good score.
Anyhow, I slept a little longer on the first morning and then ventured out into the city. I walked through some of the markets, down some of the less crowed streets of Florence as well as scoped out where I would have to meet my tour at 2:15pm.
One of the bridges in Florence - the Ponte Vecchio
I passed by this sandwich shop where the line was all the way down the street. Evidently, it’s the most famous sandwich shop in Florence.
The tour began at 2:30pm. We walked from the river to the Academia Galleria and saw some of the sights and listen to our very knowledgeable tour guide, Stefano.
Bridge to connect the uffici (offices) to the Palazzo Vecchio
Baptistry at the Duomo
Bell Tower at the Duomo
And we finally got to the
Galleria Della Accadmia. Which is/was part of a school. For some reason, I expected someplace that had one of the most famous statues in the world to be a little more grand to look at from the outside.
St. Matthew
The Pieta
That was the end of the tour. We were able to wander around the gallery as much as we liked. So, I wandered around for a bit and then took off. The gallery was very close to my apartment, I didn’t even realize that as I was looking for something more exciting to tell me that “there was an important piece of art there”.
On my constant search to find a tobacco shop that wasn’t a shop for cigarettes and vaping supplies, I finally found one - on the street where my apartment was. SCORE - finally. The guy behind the counter was an older guy, spoke pretty decent English, and he was fun to talk to. I ended up picking up a few cigars and some pipe tobacco for John and a new pipe. I wanted to get a new pipe that was made in Italy. So, I was shown a few and I chose this one
It’s a
Savinelli and I think it’s made out of balsa wood, that is native to Italy. I also asked what the rules about smoking were in Florence and I was told I could smoke anywhere that is not inside. So, that was cool. I actually didn’t get my nerve up to do that until the next day.
I wandered around a little more and decided that tonight would be pizza night. So, I stopped at a restaurant on the piazza and had a pizza. Nothing exciting, just a pizza. Afterward, I walked around some more, trying to avoid the peddlers trying to talk to you and sell you stuff. I really did try to avoid the squares for this reason. They were all over the place. It seemed mostly they were from Africa. One asked me if I needed a Rolex - I basically said back “Why would I want a Rolex?” And walked away.
I went back to the apartment and did some writing and then I went to bed.
The goal of the next day (Sunday) was to attend Mass at the Duomo. So.I had made sure I looked up the Mass times and set my alarm accordingly. Thinking there was a 9:30am Mass, I started out a little early to make sure I got there on time. Well, there wasn’t a 9:30am Mass, but a 9:00am Mass. I looked up the Mass times again and found that - as usual - I was looking at the wrong schedule. - I seem to do that a lot. However, there was a Mass at 10:30am that was done in Gregorian Chant - with organ - so I stayed for that. I loved the organ in the Duomo as the different ranks of pipes were in different parts of the church. Almost like in surround sound. While I appreciate good organ music, the compositions of the 20th century (or newer) never really do it for me. This organist seemed all about that, using big pedal sounds and very reedy-sounding registrations. The neat thing is that there is a 10 second reverberation.
I didn’t take any pictures during Mass because I didn’t think it was appropriate. My plan was to go back later in the day and go in and explore a little more and take pictures. After Mass, I got some lunch and then headed back. Well, once again, Mattei didn’t read the fine print… the cathedral was closed on Sunday for walkthroughs, etc… Failed again.
At that point, I was done with Florence, so I went back to the apartment, did some writing, booked my train to London and tickets to a show, I read a little and then I decided to go out for dinner and finally smoke that damn cigar while sitting in a cafe!
I thought for my last night in Florence, I would go for beef again and I found a lovely little restaurant called Casa Del Vin Santo and ordered a ribeye. It really was one of the best ribeyes I’ve ever had
I ordered it rare, and it came out perfectly. I tagged the restaurant in my Facebook post saying it was the best ribeye I’d ever had - and suddenly a shot of limoncello (on the house) ended up on my table saying “Thank you for being here”. So, that was nice. I found a nice cafe, ordered and Aperol spritz and I smoked my cigar. Sorta made me feel like a European, smoking outside in a cafe.
I headed back to the apartment, finished some things and went to bed - but didn’t sleep well - don’t know why. The next day I’d be on a plane to the Netherlands for a week or so of chilling out with family and friends.
So, Florence. Maybe I was jaded after having such an amazing time in Assisi and wanted Florence to be the same amazing time. Maybe I was just tired of basically being a tourist for almost two weeks? The tourist parts of Florence are so much like Rome that I was really done with Florence before I even got there. I’m glad I’ve been and I can check it off the list!
Maestro
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