Tuesday, July 5th, Florence, Italy

We made it to our apartment without any issue yesterday which I thought was amazing with the chaotic confusion of the city and its maize of tiny roads that twist and wind all directions.  The buildings are normally four to five floors and the roads, even busy ones, are all about like alleys at home.



Our flat is on the 3rd floor (which makes it the 4th level up) so we lug our heavy bags up this narrow staircase that turns about every five steps.  I bring up the rear as our host Elaina with her baby girl Olivia and Lauren chat.  We walk in and it reminds me of an old movie.  We find that this was her grandmother's home.  There are a few new appliances blended in with antique furniture, a simple wood table and mint green painted kitchen cupboards.  You can still almost feel Grandma there and instantly the rustic vision around us feels like our new home away from home.






We love having the wifi hook up and quickly connect to folks at home, and post our pictures and blogs.  Lauren gets me all set up with the steps to create my own, then we force ourselves to leave to head out for dinner. We decided to look up one of Rick Steve's recommendations for places to eat, and it is a lovely little restaurant but we are disappointed that there are mostly Americans eating there.  This guy's books are everywhere you go as people walk about practically following his European guides word for word.  So we decided that today we'll leave Rick behind and just explore the old fashioned way.

Lauren hit the exhaustion wall this am so is getting a couple hours sleep to catch up, while I sit at the kitchen table at my iPad.  It is so peaceful and restful here.  I know that we should be out checking all the endless museums and churches and other not-to-be-missed items and yet these quiet moments are perhaps better for our souls, and will nourish our bodies.  Maybe this will just be a Florence scouting mission so that we will know just what we would like to do on our next visit.

We got rolling and everything worked out great.  We thought that since we had not done advance reservations for the Uffuzi Gallery which houses many key Italian paintings and sculptures.  However, when we went to to tourist bureau they advised that it would be open from 6-10pm tonight and that we should go to get in line then.  So with our late day plan in line and reservations all made for a Tuscany trip tomorrow, we grabbed a quick bite for lunch then took some pictures and headed off to Duomo.  




I had read this am in the famous Rick Steves book that the Duomo is a plac to be seen but that the lines can go for several hours.  So here's the trick.  Go to the Duomo Museum. (looks like opera museum on the outside wall, back behind Duomo) and ask for the tour of Terraces of the Cathedral and Dome.  It ran 15€ per person.  Then they send you to an exit door, where you present your pass and walk right in.  There were crowds outside that probably stood there for 3 hrs to get in, so we felt like quite the VIP guests!

We saw the inside main floor of this wonderful cathedral, then hope you got your good work out shoes and emery ready,because we are going to climb.  listen later figured it for around 300 steps, but it sure seemed like more! .



They were very narrow, winding around in circles or in steep passages.  After the first part we went outside, then wound around the base of the massive dome itself.  After some pix of the great  scenery we were off again, all the way to then catwalks atop of the dome. The scenery was awesome, as we now either at the highest point or close and could see for miles.  Of course then you have to walk back down.... But it was truly worth the trip!



We did some shopping in the local markets, and Lauren was good as usual at negotiating some deals, so we collected some items for ourselves and family /friends at home.  Walking down the busy street we ran into our landlord and chatted for a bit... Made it feel like we were really a part of the neighborhood.  Unfortunately, Florence has become a bit like a chaotic Disneyland with large crowds and line, and people scrambling for their kodak moments.  We prefer a little more traditional locale time, but hope to have that tomorrow.




So off we go again to the Uffizi Gallery, where we were very surprised to find NO line!  Clearly people don't realize they are open in the evening or are just too tire from the day.  It was a wonderful museum in an enormous U shape with the major artists and sculptors of the 15th - 17th centuries.  Donatello and Michelangelo, among many others were well represented.

At this point we decided we were ready for dinner and headed across the bridge to see what there is on the other side.  



We found a lovely restaurant with seating right on the river, so that was a perfect finish to the day with another bottle of the local Tuscan wine, some paper thins sausage for appetizers, a carbonara pasta, and fresh sea bass and swordfish.  As we make the walk back to the apartment,there is room for one more wonderful gelato (remember all that walking??) and now we are back once again in our lovely little apartment, connecting to home and preparing for another day.  We should sleep well tonight!