well, we arrived in Firenze yesterday afternoon. May I say we were thrilled that our room at the Hotel Atlantic Palace is very nice and the bathroom is 3x the size of the last one! This is only the second room tho' where we have not had a balcony, sad story, huh? Barbara is posting pictures as I am typing (we are at an Internet Cafe). I think she is going to post last bathroom-present bathroom side by side for your amuzement. The weather here is cool, almost like being back in Simbario\Spadula, except the radiator is on here! It was very cool early today but warmed up nicely. It's now 9:30 pm and it's chilly!
After our arrival yesterday, we walked around the corner to the Piazza San Giovanni, and the Duomo and then to the museum of the Duomo. On the way to the Duomo, we walked through the Mercato Centrale. Stall after stall of leather, purses, coats, briefcases; if the can make it in leather, they've got it. Also of course, jewelry, scarves, from the sublime to the ridiculous. They even have 99 cent and 1€ stores here! Which reminds me, if you are thinking of coming to Europe keep an eye on the dollar & Euro conversion. When I first started watching 1€=$1.29 now it is 1€=$1.45, darn if I had bought Euro early on!!
As soon as we got here yesterday, we had the concierge make reservations at the Uffizi and Galleria del Academia. We were so glad we did because the lines to buy tickets when we got to each place were very very long. When we got to the Uffizi (pronounced ooo-feet zi) the lift was broken so we had to climb 5 big flights of stairs to get to the museum which is a large U shape. I tell you these two 64 year old over-weight women have GOT to be losing weight ;-) Anyway, we walked all through the museum looking at the famous Renaissance art of Botticelli, Michaelangelo, and names I can't remember or spell. Afterwards we walked across town to the Academy to see The David. How magnificent he is!! When we got back to the hotel, a large tour group was checking in and we had to climb the stairs again to get to our 2nd floor room. WE are feeling every bit of our 63 years tonight!
Tomorrow, we go to Tuscany, Sienna and 2 other places, and yes, we're doing a paid tour this time. We get to go to a winery and have a tasting of wines and munchies, yea!
Ciao for now!
Near the Uffizi Gallery was the Palazzo Vecchio on Piazza della Signoria where the original David sculpture stood. The original was created between 1501 and 1504. Now there is a reproduction there because the real David was moved to Accademia Gallery in 1873.
ReplyDeleteSort of attached to part of the Uffizi is the Loggia dei Lanzi. Unfortunately the sculpture there were not very visible because of construction on the Uffizi or because they were preparing for an event.
At the Uffizi were "performance" artists dressed as characters in Florentine history. The man playing Leonardo Da Vinci was the most interesting to me. They would stand perfectly still and only move every once in a while.