Monday, September 18, 2017

Florence & Tuscany


An early wake up and the hotel staff assisted in securing a cab and getting our luggage down the 57 steps to the street. Our cab was waiting and we are off the Schiphol airport. We were warned to ensure we arrived 3 hours before our flight was scheduled to depart and because of the recent attack in Manchester, England and the heightened threat levels we actually arrived close to 4 hours before.



We are flying KLM, the Royal Dutch airline and they have automated the baggage check in process quite successfully. You enter a roped off area after showing your passport and wait in a small queue for the next available machine. You place your bag in the machine and scan the barcode on your boarding pass. The machine weighs your bag and tells you if it is within guidelines. It then confirms that the bag belongs to you and issues a baggage tag. You put the adhesive tag on you bag, press OK and the door closes and away goes the bag. Having not used it before, it took us about a minute for the first bag and maybe 20 seconds for the second bag.



We were warned that security would be long and extra tight. It took about 15 minutes on line and a few extra minutes to have my bags searched because of all the electronics, charging cables etc. and they don't like even 3oz liquid containers without checking them closely. But within 30 minutes we were done and now had over 3 hours to wait. Actually, it was longer because all of Europe was congested due to heightened security and Amsterdam only had one runway working, the other closed for maintenance. Our aircraft was about 45 minutes late in arriving and they use a crazy system to board. They have jetways out to the tarmac and then stairs to ground level. You then walk about 25 yards to another stair rolled up against the aircraft door. We had one carry on, one personal item each and both were packed full. Not easy with all those steps.



The pilot made up some time and we had a bumpy ride but we hadn't even cleared 10k feet and the seat belt sign was off, people were moving about and the cabin crew were preparing to serve free drinks and snacks. Never would have happened on Southwest or another American carrier. The seat belt sign came back on minutes before we touched down & he used every inch of runway in Florence. It was an Embraer 190 aircraft that seats about 100 people. They used both the front and rear exit doors to off-load, again using steps. We could see the small terminal building from the plane but they put us on buses and drove about 150 feet and had us get off and walk into the terminal. Immigration was fast and easy but she asked why our passports had not been stamped & how did we get to The Netherlands? When we told her that we came by ship and all the stops we made she was amazed nobody had looked at and stamped our passports! But with electronic communication these days it is not surprising.




I had pre-arranged a taxi transfer for the airport and in 30 minutes we were checking into our hotel. Surprise, only 2 steps and an elevator. Wow!

We are in the center of Florence and near everything.



The Hotel Casci is about a block and a half from the Duomo, 2 blocks from the Academia and about 6 blocks to the Ufitziti; basically the 3 major attractions in Florence. A short nap (by now you probably realize we take naps every day we can, we’re old) and a recommendation for dinner about 5 blocks away at Trattoria Trebbio. A gem of a small, side street restaurant that serves fabulous Florentine food and very reasonable prices and as Laurie says, “even better red wine”!  Of which she had way too much. Amazing how sometimes the walls of the buildings as you walk down the street seem to bump into you and propel you across to the other side Oh My! I got her back to the room and she slept soundly.

Unfortunately, for Laurie we had an early wake up and the taxi picked us up at 7:10am for an 11+ hour bus tour of the Tuscany countryside. Exhausting but enjoyable. We drove several hours to Sienna and saw the large cathedral square and site of the annual horse races representing the various villages in the Tuscan region. As usual on these type of tours, you don't get to see a lot, just snippets of the area and the guides always walk too fast. Yes, we were the oldest people on the bus and we kept up but we sure did walk a lot.










From Sienna, we headed into the hills for lunch at a local Tuscany winery. A pre-arranged stop for Groups. A three-course meal with paired local wines. Quite nice and no long walk from the bus. A short drive up the hills and the medieval town of Giamangiano. Known for its leather shops and “special” gelato shop, highly recommended by our tour guide, hmmm, maybe it was her cousin? Anyway, again the buses had to park far from the town and the guide took off. Some curious shops and great vistas of the surrounding hills of Tuscany.








Back on the bus for a 2-hour ride to Pisa and as Laurie commented upon seeing it: “it really leans”. Unfortunately, a really long 1/2 mile walk from the bus parking into the site. Lots of local “gypsy” vendors/pick-pockets along the route. The Tower is really amazing and yes, it really does lean and yes, we took the “original” photo ops of holding it up, etc. Back to the bus and a 2+ hour ride back to the train station in Florence. Unfortunately, our tour price did not include the taxi back to our hotel (note to self, always check that) but we made arrangement with the Guide to get us a taxi and meet the bus. A quick dinner at a pizza restaurant across the street from the hotel and a well-deserved good night’s sleep.












Today is May 26th and we have tickets for a tour of the Duomo. Like many of the hotels in Europe their concierge will make tour arrangements for you in advance of your arrival. You pay a small fee to the hotel when you check in and the balance goes to the tour operator at the meeting point near the site or event.

This was the arrangement for this morning except that the agent collected our funds but could not find the scheduled docent / guide for the English-speaking tour. So, to accommodate us they asked if we would be willing to tour the church and baptistery on our own and later in the afternoon they would insure a guide met us at the museum for our tour.

As a further accommodation to us rather than having to wait on a long line with other tour groups they snuck us in a side door ahead of the crowds and we had the pleasure of wandering around the church at our leisure.





















A magnificent church that overpowers the square with its domed structure and 200 step bell tower. Yes, you can climb to the top if that intrigues you. Not this time. Been to the top of many church towers and they are pretty much the same, just a different view. A beautifully decorated interior with marvelous marble mosaic tile floors going back centuries and yes, you can actually walk on them. Surprising, since so many other historic sites in the world block off areas like this.
This church also has a basement and a walkway guided tour of the ancient Roman artifacts and grave stones of departed dignitaries and church relics. Alas, the proverbial gift shop is also down below.
An “al fresco” lunch in the Square gave us time to relax and enjoy some people watching before heading over to the baptistery. A magnificent structure with several small chapels for prayer and centuries old paintings on the domed ceiling depicting biblical scenes.

 
We finished our viewing and treated ourselves to a gelato and headed over to the Museum. We found our guide, Stephanie and we were all surprised that we were the only ones for the tour. So, for the next 2 hours we wandered the 3 floors of the building being awed around each turn and learning about the Medici family. An emotional highlight for me was seeing Michelangelo’s “Pieta”. During his lifetime, he sculpted 3 magnificent statues, known internationally as “Pieta’s”. This one is known as the Florentine Pieta or Deposition and took my breath away. It is truly awe inspiring and moved me to tears with its realism. The other two are in Milan and Rome and we will get to see the one at St. Peter's Basilica next week.















The Museum is unique in that they have taken many of the priceless statuary from the cathedral and replaced them with replicas since the weather and elements were taking their toll, especially on the gold and bronze doors.
Since we were the only ones on the tour we had many an insight into some of the works as Stephanie is a student of history and especially the Renaissance. We concluded our tour with a photo op up on the roof. A lot of walking today and we treated ourselves to a Pedi-cab ride to our favorite restaurant for another fabulous Florentine meal and Laurie’s new found favorite red wine.
Our next day of touring Florence took us to the Academia and viewing the original statue of David. It's hard to believe that it sat outside as a pigeon perch for so many years before they realized how priceless this work of art is. It is truly magnificent and our guide was informative but the place was crowded. We found a small restaurant for lunch. We also needed to buy train tickets for tomorrow's trip to Rome and picked a local travel agency to help us. Their fee was quite reasonable.



Our afternoon tour was of the Ufitziti Gallery. It is one of Europe’s top galleries housing thousands of priceless art works. Alas, we are getting tired of guided tours with 20+ people and guides who speak English as a second or third language and have thick accents. The Gallery is a tribute to and was paid for by the Medici family and our guide was true Florentine who was extremely proud of her heritage. She spent way too much time extolling the virtues of the Medici’s and there was no way to see the entire collection in 90 minutes. We broke away from the Group and took a more relaxed approach to the huge museum. Perhaps too much touring days in a row.







A farewell dinner to enjoy before tomorrows trip.

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