Firenze Italia
October 09, 2008
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The main event! The one I'd been waiting for the entire cruise. It isn't that Firenze (Florence) is more beautiful than anyplace else we'd visited. In fact, it's not that beautiful, it's frenetic, it's chaotic, it's kind of dirty but mein Gott the HISTORY! So much has taken place in such a small area it was awe inspiring to walk the streets and imagine Leonardo Da Vinci learning to draw or Lorenzo Medici walking the 2 blocks from his palazzo to the Duomo or to look at Ghiberti's Baptistry doors and then turn around to see the amazing Duomo rising almost 500 ft into the air right behind you and picture Brunelleschi overseeing the construction of the massive dome. And we haven't even gotten to the Chiesa da Santa Croce or the Ponte Vecchio.
But I get ahead of myself, our new friends John and Kathryn, our travel idols, shared a cab with us from the Port of Livorno to the train station where we hopped on a train for the 1.5 hour ride to Firenze (6.50 Euros). Once we got there we walked along a great open air Mercato Centrale and, I must say, saw some great deals on leather jackets that I've never seen in the US. Had the stock market not erased 20% of our portfolio over the past week we would both be sporting some way cool threads today!
It's easy to get around in Firenze because no matter where you are in the city you can see the Duomo and get your bearings. We went there first and then proceeded over to the Piazza della Republica which is next to the Uffizi Gallery which contained a few works by Leonardo Da Vinci, I believe it was the unfinished Adoration of the Magi and a work by Michaelangelo. Next we went over to the Ponte Vecchio where I bought a nice shirt to go with my suit and then over to the Chiesa da Santa Croce where Galileo and Michaelangelo are both buried along with many other artists and famous persons. After that we found a great cafe recommended by National Geographic's travel website and had a picture perfect Italian lunch of pane e olio oliva, vino rosso e pasta! The waiter spoke no English so it was the first time I had to carry the entire transaction in Italian which went well so that made my day :)By this time we'd been walking for more than 8 hours so we made our way back to the train station, found some friends on the train and shared a cab back to the ship. Altogether a 12 hour excursion for us that was exhausting and exhilarating.
