ITALY ADVENTURES 2017 ISSUE III

So, I left off in Venice and I am certain there was oh, so much more I wanted to share.  However, time, tide and memory wait for no man and alas it is all gone.  

OUR BUS

Next stop Florence, or in Italian, Firenze.  We actually make it there for lunch time with no intervening stops.  Having said we arrived relatively early, this does not make allowances for what the bus driver had to do to get near to our hotel which was in the pedestrianized portion of the city.  I am quite certain we went around the block several times, due to one way streets and traffic, only to park on a street we traversed several time but on the opposite side.  Then it is offload your luggage and prepare for more cobbles and playing dodgems with automobiles.  Our hotel is down a narrow lane not far from Medici Chapel.  You could easily walk right past if you didn’t know what you were looking for.  A modest, nondescript doorway between a café and some other commercial establishment, but across the street from a rather excellent gelateria.  It’s the de rigueur hike up several

flights of stairs.  Once again, it isn’t grand and I am sure every room in the place is different from the next, but they are clean, neat and the beds have been great. More than that, it fulfils Rick Steves signature benefit, location, location, location. 

To say no cars are allowed in the center of Florence would be an exaggeration and there are definitely mini buses for public transit, but they do their best to minimize traffic.  My memory of 50 years ago says there were even fewer vehicles than we see now.  Guessing there are just that many more people now who live in the center, own cars and expect to be able to have access to their homes.  1970 was a time when far fewer people depended on personal vehicles for transportation and probably did not travel that far to work each day.  
 

We do a quick introductory tour of central Florence picking off the Cathedral, Uffizi Gallery, a gelato and Plaza della Signoria en route to Galleria dell’Accademia to see Michelangelo’s David.  Nice touch, the tickets were purchased in advance, so no standing in line.  David has pride of place at the end of a long gallery beneath a skylight dome which emphasizes the immense size of the statue and changes the quality and color of the marble as the outside light changes.  The gallery or

Hall of the Prisoners also contains several other unfinished works by Michelangelo.  They, much like David, are more than life size and they seem to be trying to escape from the marble.  How anyone could begin with a block of cold stone and end up with something as awe inspiring as some of the sculptures we have seen is incomprehensible to me.

Another room of the museum, The Gipsoteca Bartolini, is just vaguely creepy.  It contains a whole series of plaster casts of faces and bodies, presumably of other statues, or maybe of real people, it is not quite clear.  They are all this deathly plaster white and are displayed row upon row, face after face on shelves and tabletops and pedestals that fill the entire room.  We

move on, but there is little else to capture our attention, besides we have to get back to the hotel so we can gather for an evening meal of bistecca alla fiorentina in a nearby restaurant.

 
What is special about bistecca alla fiorentina, you ask.  Allow me tell you.  Traditionally the meat for a Bistecca alla Fiorentina comes from a Tuscan breed of cattle called the Chianina.  Since this is a traditional Florentine dish, it may explain why there are so many leather goods in Florence.  Were you to ask our restaurateur he would happily explain to you that cooking a Bistecca alla Fiorentina is definitely an art. The steak should always be cooked from room temperature and never from the fridge. A high temperature is required and the steak is cooked for just 3–5 minutes on each side, turning it only once.  Bear in mind I am not talking about paltry steak like you might see at home we are talking about a piece of meat that probably weighs three (3) or more pounds and is 2 or more inches thick. The outside of the steak should be almost charred, and the inside very rare and only warm, certainly not piping hot.  Do I think we got an especially good 

steak, probably not, but it was fun and watching it being cooked in front of us was decidedly entertaining. 
I no longer remember what came with our steak, although almost undoubtedly there was a pasta course and of course dessert.  Have I mentioned this before, it is advantageous to be at the same table as the tour guide, the wine definitely runs freely. 

Baptistry

It is very nearly impossible to get a decent photo of the cathedral since there isn't much of a plaza in front of it.  It is pretty darn impressive, it is so intricate and there is so much going on it becomes difficult to focus on all the details.  Moreover the colors are so unusual, a combination of pink, green and white marble.  

Bell Tower

Cathedral

A few more places of interest, the Uffizi Gallery with a docent led tour, outstanding.  The bronze boar whose nose you are supposed to rub to ensure your return to Florence and of course the Ponte Vecchio.  The current bridge dates from medieval times and constructed of stone, although there has been a bridge here since Roman times.  Initially there were butchers in shops on the bridge, perhaps a way dispose of the remains, but it has traditionally sheltered jewelers since the Medici family built there palazzo across the river from the center of town and used the bridge as a means to access the town down below.  

ERRATA

Best advice in Venice, if you are feeling lost, keep walking in a straight line, you will eventually find the Grand Canal

House numbers in Florence are generally on white enameled squares.  A blue number means the building is residential, if the number is in red it is commercial.

Tour bus operators pay enormous fees for permits to access the city centers of the more touristy places such as Florence, Sienna, Rome or Pisa.  I want to say it $300 just to park on the outskirts of Pisa.