Florence is Phenomenal!

 

It was difficult to leave Florence. In fact, we decided to stay an extra day. From the moment we stepped off the train at Santa Maria Novello train station, we were in awe of the beauty surrounding us. The first thing we noticed though on the walk to our apartment was that the only language we were hearing was English. We were very surprised and slightly perplexed. Americans filled the streets of Florence. As we walked further in, the crowd became more diverse. We had no idea how many of us had descended upon Florence.

When we arrived at our apartment, I silently gasped in horror. To give you an  idea, I included a picture of the hallway.  It was pretty awful. You could only use one thing requiring electricity at a time so I was just imagining how the “air conditioning” was going to go down. Needless to say, we didn’t stay. Instead we went to lunch at Cafe Rivoire and found a hotel. I think it is called Golden Tower and it is lovely. The employees constantly went above and beyond to make the guests happy. It was in a great location as well.  The lesson I learned here is there is no such thing as a deal. Really. You get what you pay for. I logged into airbnb and cancelled all the reservations where I felt I had a “deal” and significantly upgraded them to ensure we stay in nice, centrally located apartments.  Fingers crossed.

We toured the Uffizi Gallery. Really loved it. We shopped and shopped and shopped until we knew we had to sit on the suitcases to close them. One day, we hired a driver to take us around Tuscany. Sooo beautiful. We had lunch and a wine tasting at Casa Emma. Really fantastic experience. We couldn’t resist shipping some wine home. Really delicious.

We really enjoyed the views from the Rooftop bar at the Westin Exelsior, the Grand Hotel Minerva and the Piazza Michael Angelo. There are pics from all three included .

One night we went to a Basilica and watched the Florentine Orchestra perform. The pianist was remarkable. It was a lovely concert. We were disappointed that they moved the concert last minute from Basilica Santa di Croce to a smaller one. We really wanted to see that basilica and that would have been an awesome way to experience it.  The Leonardo Davinci museum was pretty rad. It is small, but it shows just how insanely ahead of his time he was. He pretty much invented everything.

We lunched at Trattoria Giovanni that Jim Walker recommended. Really good stuff. We had gelato at Vivoli which several people recommended. It definitely stood up to its reputation. We had another lunch at Coquinarius, recommended by Jen Ordway. Delicious! We did not have a bad meal. Everything from the hotel to shopping was phenomenal.  We were pretty much able to walk everywhere. which was lovely. Ponte Vecchio, Duomo, Uffizi….We rubbed the nose of that porcellino in the market for good fortune. My coin did not go through the grate, but Jordan’s did so that will work!

Jordan has a few friends in a quartet that has been performing in Florence this summer so he was very happy to meet up with them yesterday. My cousin, Rosie was escorting my step-mother, Joan, through Italy and so we also met them for lunch. They seem to be enjoying themselves. They had just arrived from Rome where they had great digs near the Vatican, but also had the same experience as we did with the crowds. Susan is in Italy as well, but all the way in Sicily so we will not be able to see her:(

We are on the train heading to Venice. All I want is to find our hotel, which looks a bit difficult to find, put my suit on an go to the pool. I am going to chill for the rest of the day. Tomorrow we tour the Doge Palace and St. Mark’s Basilica. Speaking of tours and tickets which I keep mentioning here, I really think now the group, guided tour is the way to go. You skip the line and learn so, so much more than you do on your own.  Our train is stopped in Bologna because there was a train accident involving a person. It is being investigated while we wait. Looks like it will be at least an hour here. Good thing we have nowhere to be!

And now Firenze from Jordan’s perspective:

Florence was definitely my favorite city so far. It was really refreshing to be in a place that was easy to navigate, and despite the huge amount of American tourists, it really wasn’t very crowded most of the time. I would absolutely recommend a visit to this city for any travelers who are considering it; it’s really gorgeous and has such a great feel to it. The food was great, the people were friendly, and everything was really easy to get to. My biggest (and only) complaint about Florence is the heat. I think it was mostly due to the time of year that we were there, but it was very very hot. So if you go, go in the winter, and that way there won’t be as many tourists, either. I was able to meet up with my friends Lizzie, Joey, and Paul, who are doing a music program in Florence through CU, (which is something I’ll definitely be looking into) and we went out for Apertivos and it was a really fun time. Also we did a wine tasting thing at a vineyard and the views were amazing and that was really really fun, definitely one of my favorite parts of the trip. Can’t wait to return!