Florence - Got the Feeling

We weren't much looking forward to having to be in Naples again, if only for a little bit, to catch the train to Florence, but it was fine in the end. The bus ride from Amalfi was fantastic, with cliff-hanger views, and misty mountain top villages. The mountains and water surrounding Naples and Capri provided us with quite a re-entrance to the city, and being a clear blue day, we could see all around. Once in Naples, we hesitated to get off the bus too early since that is exactly what we did our first time into Naples by train. This time, we actually passed our stop, at the Stazione Centrale, but realized it quickly enough to ring the buzzer and get off within a block or so. We snaked our way through the crazy maze of taxis, whistling drivers (at Vee of course), other tourists, scooters, buses, construction detours, etc., and went to the same ticketing office as before. The first two EuroStar trains were both full, so we took the InterCity costing just 5 EUR a piece...yay!!! We had just enough time to get a little coffee and sandwich snack and then run to the train for our 4 hour trip. Our seats weren't exactly together, but we could see each other, and were facing each other caddy-corner. Towards the end of the trip, we saw the train ticketing "enforcers" surround some young guy who had apparently stolen aboard and was trying to sell bootleg CDs to passengers, and they gave him a good hollering. It looked like they woulda tossed him off the moving train if they could've gotten away with it. The countryside on the way into Florence was so gorgeous, so much more beautiful than I was expecting. It's weird, because if you try and describe it to someone who has never seen it, it would probably sound pretty hum-drum, not so special. But, somehow, although it's just a bunch of green rolling hills, spiked with rows of trees, the occasional flock of sheep our pasture speckled with cows or horses, and farmhouses in the tuscan style, it is really something special to see. And upon coming into the city, I could immediately see that I was going to like it. I loved the design of the buildings. Most were within a limited range of height, with similar use of wonderful stone in the corners, offset by brown wooden shudders, typical terra-cota colored roofs, and mostly off-white, creamy and mustardy-yellow stucco. Another young couple from California tagged along with us to our hotel, which was only a few blocks walk from the train station. After checking in and getting situated, we found a piazza lined with ristorantes offering plentiful menus and outdoor seating, and had a fantastic meal. My favorite was the locally recommended soup called "ribollita" that I absolutely have to make when we get home. Every round was delicious, except that towards the end of the meal, our waiter was paying much more attention to the people walking by, then the people at his tables, and it took us forever to pay and leave.

Saturday morning, we took advantage of the wireless Internet connection available in the lobby and uploaded all of our blogs, pictures and videos that we've been unable to upload since our first trip to Naples. Around noon, we had finished with all that, had some coffees and pastries and went out to explore Florence. And that is really what we did, explore. We walked and walked and walked. We got inside of the Church of SS. Annunziata, which was absolutely gorgeous, while they were finishing up a service. We also went into the Duomo, and then paid for the opportunity to climb the twisting steps all the way up to the top, and it was soooooo worth it as the views from up there were staggering. From there we had 360 degree views of the city and all of it's surroundings. The sky was a hazy blue and we could see pretty much as far as we wanted. We saw the Ponte Vecchio which is a bridge built in the 14th century and is the only one in the city to survive the bombings during WWII. We hung out in front of the Piazza dei Pitti and people-watched in the warm sun, having just finished a loaf of bread we picked up during our walk along the river. There is so much more that we saw, and so much more we wanted to see. Having walked all day, we were looking forward to a relaxing night back at the hotel, and so we picked up some chianti, beer, bread, fruit, chocolate, etc. and finished off the day quietly looking forward to the next.

Sunday, we quickly jumped online to book our next stay in Siena, and then headed out to the Galleria degli Uffizi. Sunday is "gratis" day for the museums, and the length of the line reflected the absence of admission fees. We waited a solid 3 hours to get in. But it was worth it. What a fantastic collection of work. We saw Botticelli's Venus, Titian's Venus, Rembrandt's self-portraits, Carravaggio's Bacchus, Leonardo da Vinci's Annunciation, and a plethora of other famous paintings and sculptures. Afterwards, we were pooped. That is a whole heckuva lot of art to see in one day. We continued walking around the city, and stopped to people-watch on the steps of the Duomo in the warm sun. Another day of perfect weather, despite the questionable forecasts. Yesterday, we picked up two new books, "Saturday" by Ian McEwan for me, and "The Birth of Venus" by Sarah Dunant for Vee, and tonight we'll probably relax with some munchies, read, get to bed at a reasonable time, and confirm our reservation for Siena.

Really the one thing we do not like about Florence is the horde of tourists. The city is absolutely jam-packed with them (us). Otherwise, it is a fantastic city, beautiful, secure, orderly, etc. We'll definitely have to come back again as there is so much more to experience here. But, for now, we must move on. Next is Siena, then Pisa, then Venice, then Milan. Hopefully we can squeeze in a bit of Tuscan countryside too.