Views of Firenze

We spent two wonderful days in Firenze. Somehow I lucked into booking a hotel, one of Rick Steves' favorites, right in the heart of the old part of Firenze within walking distance of everything we wanted to see! The hotel was perfect, the people were so helpful and cheerful, we had a room with our own bathroom and we didn't have to treck our luggage up any stairs! Monty was the most excited about no stairs.

The guy at the front desk pointed us to all of the sites and we were off. Thankfully, Monty and I headed first to see Michelangelo's David. You are supposed to be able to reserve a time to see the David, but unfortunately for us, the computer was down so we had to stand in line. But...much to Monty's relief, the line moved quickly and we got into the museum quickly. Just like most of the museums we visited, taking photographs was prohibited. I was immediately bummed! But, when we did see the David, everyone else was taking pictures, so I snapped one too! I figured if the Asian man with the professional camera wasn't getting kicked out of the museum, that I could definitely snap one before I was thrown out and it's the first picture on the slide show!


The David was very impressive, but I was most struck by the disporportionate size of his hands and feet in comparision to the rest of his body. I thought everything was to scale, except the hands and feet, but what do I know?




After seeing the David, we headed over to the Duomo to climb the 414 steps to the top [the tower on the right is what we climbed]! It was an interesting climb to say the least. The higher you go, the narrower the stairs and it seemed the more people trying to go both up and down. I was a little on edge the higher we got because I'm petrified of small spaces and getting stuck, but I made it and Monty was a trooper. Climbing was 100% my idea and I really think he just humored me with agreeing to go.

Later that evening we attended our second Italian Catholic mass in as many days at the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore [the cathedral next to the Duomo]. This time however, the scripture portion of th e program was printed in several languages, including English so Monty and I were able to follow along. The inside of this Cattedrale was much simplier than Basilicia in Vienze, but was absolutely beautiful. And...we sat right up front. We arrived about 15 minutes before the mass began and sat in the wooden pews under the dome. I can't imagine how many people sat in those same seats over the years.

The next day we decided to visit some of the Basilicias. We went to Basilicia di San Lorenzo and Basilicia di Santa Maria Novella. They were both very beautiful and completely different. Of course, pictures inside were prohibited, but Monty did get several great ones outside of each. Despite the plain exterior of the Basilicia di San Lorenzo, the inside was extremely ornate and beautiful. My only complaint about the 2 is that no air moves inside and even though we were there early in the morning, the heat inside was oppressive. The final picture is of the gardens outside the Basilicia di Santa Maria Novella.

Firenze has several Basilicas and after visiting 2 Monty and I decided we had seen it all. Boy were we wrong...the one we considered visiting and decided against was probably the most important of all. Why do you ask? Well...because Michelangelo, Dante and Galielo are all buried there. Moral of the story...Monty and I failed! I guess we'll just have to go back to Firenze again...

After visiting these Basilica's, Monty and I headed up to Piazzale Michelangelo and the Boboli gardens. The views from up there were spectacular of the city. While up there we walked through the cemetary outside Chiesa di San Miniato al Monte which is just up the hill from Piazzale Michelangelo. We didn't go inside the Chiesa, but the cemetary was beautiful and peaceful.



We had planned to tour the Boboli gardens as well, but decided against it when we got there and saw how much it cost to get inside. So instead we headed off down a small street and into an Italian grocery store to get some lunch. It was interesting trying to order sandwiches at the meat counter, but fortunately for me, the man that helped me spoke some English! Although, Monty's bread for his sandwich was good, he may have chipped a tooth if he hadn't been careful! We took our sandwiches and a bottle of wine and had our first picnic. It was memorable in that it was in Firenze and I sat in ice cream and who knows what else on the stoop we found.

Firenze, although completely different from Vienzia, was awesome! We both loved it and will probably go back at some point!