Beautiful Florence

This morning, we travelled from Venice to Florence. We really enjoyed Venice, much more then expected. It is still exciting to get into a new town!

On the train, we witnessed a bit of mellow-drama between an "alluring" couple; he seemed to be of the "well-off" type and she was a stereotypical trophy wife (sorry for the judgement comment). Anyway, he seemed to try to make peace or trying to convince her of something but he kept taking her purse, her phone, her hand, her water away from her. He would then get up and pace around the train and even tried to convince an American woman to shift seats so they could sit side-by-side. They eventually moved to another wagon, which made for a quieter ride. The characters we meet on trains!

Art is really the heart of Florence

We checked in into our hotel (review to come) and set off to explore. We did some sight-seeing, walking into the Duomo Cathedral and through several piazzas. We also crossed the river via the Ponte Vecchio, checking out what we will want to see during the next week. So far we like what we see. Jason didn't notice last year that there was any shopping; well, it is leather and scarf (silk & cashmere) heaven!

We will update during the coming days.

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November 15 : We just are winding down from our first day in Florence... We "attacked" the Galleria degli Uffizi this morning... what a visit! In our Frommer's guide, they suggested 3 hours to visit it ; well, it took us about 5 hours. We saw Botticeli's "Birth of Venus" and "Primavera", Da Vinci's "Annunciation" and many more. From one room to the other, we were coming across many master-pieces. Even though neither of us have a big knowledge of art, we can still appreciate it. Also, we visited the Da Vinci exhibit, which focusses on his scientific work and on how he applied it to his art... very impressive and some of it went over our heads. We wondered if the guy even had time to sleep!

Coming out of there, we were too hungry to continu our visiting, so we had to eat. Those of you who know us, know that neither of us ever go over 3 hours without eating, so eating was a priority. After a quick bite, we headed to the Santa Croce church. This church is home to some impressive Renaissance art and the resting place of some of Florence's elite, such as Dante, Michealangelo and Galileo.

Art is really the heart of Florence. You can't walk far without coming upon a piazza that has some impressive statue, a church or a museum. There is so much history here. Florence was the centre of trading has enjoyed tremendous wealth and it has left quite a legacy in the form of amazing art collection and impressive buildings.

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November 16 - Another full day of exploration and discoveries!

This morning, we headed to Palazzo Pitti. Until the Palais de Versailles was built, this palazzo was the most impressive in Europe... I haven't been to Versailles yet, but I can believe! The palazzo was built by Luca Pitti who wanted to outclass the Medici, who bought the property when Pitti went bankrupt. It is now home to several museums and galleries. The Galleria Palatina alone is worth the visit. There are many paintings by Raphael and other notables. Most of the collection was amassed over the years by the Medici family. After this gallerie, we did a couple of the other smaller museum, such as the one of modern art, the costume and the porcelaine museums. One major highlight was our walk through the Giardini di Boboli... what a garden! It is immense and beautiful. We walked for a good 45 minutes and only saw maybe 1/3 of it. There are many fountains, statues, pavillions, trails and ponds. The view of Florence is amazing and the city can be seen at several heights. We spent a good 4 hours in the Pitti/Boboli.

After a quick lunch (focacia & drinks), we looked into joining an organized tour of the Chianti region. Since we didn't have reservations (which would have been a good idea) we were on "stand by" and were able to join the tour. We drove out in a bus to a chateau about an hour out of Florence, for a visit and a wine tasting... yum! It just happened that we were sitting at a table with 2 other couples who were honeymooning (from Victoria, Australia and Miami, US). In addition to produce some chianti wines, this producer (we will add the name) has some olive trees and produce olive oil.

From there, our bus stopped in Greve in Chianti, a charming town. Around the town square, we visited several shops. We tooke some cool pictures at a meat shop, but what took the "prize" was our visite at this small shop, owned by a lady with red glasses (à la Sally Jessy Raphael). She didn't speak one word of English, but she was really charming. We were looking at some balsamic vinegar from Modena (the "true" stuff) and she started telling us about the olive oil that she sells and the salami and proscuito that she prepares. She cut up some salami and proscuito for us to taste. Then she gestured us to open our palms so she could pour some olive oil in them for us too taste... it was funny and would go against many health standards that we have in North America, but it was quite an experience! We ended up buying some Modena balsamic vinegar and some olive oil. We took a cool picture with her and were off.

Upon our return to Florence, we had a nice supper at a restaurant next door to another one we had noticed last night. As I (Monique) is updating the blog, Jason is next door copying our vacation pictures on a cd. We have taken about 600 to date. With another week left, we will need space on our memory card!

Tomorrow, we are heading to Pisa and maybe Lucca, which is only a short train hop from there and easy to get back from. With only another week left of our stay to Italy, we really want to take advantage of it!

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November 18 - This morning, we headed to The Accademia to see Michelangelo's David... yes, he does live up to his reputation! Before leaving on this trip, Monique had a request from Nathalie and Nadine to have a "moment" and think of them as she would be admiring the male form... "done it girls!". Besides that work of art, the rest of the museum is OK.

We then went to the Medicee Capella, where the tombs of many members of the Medici dynasty can be found. There are 2 main attractions there: the Sagrestia Nuova, which was designed by Michelangelo and where 2 of his masterpieces can be found. There is also another chapel that you need to go through to get to the sagrestia that is impressive.

After a quick bite to eat, we headed back to Palazzo Pitti, where we saw the only part that we had not seen yet. A really cool thing about Palazzo Pitti is that tickets are good for 3 days (including day of purchase) and the different sections are punched as you visit them. We didn't have the time to visit the Museo degli Argenti on Thursday, so we did it today. As we were going through, Florence was hit by a thunder storm and torrential rain, so we hung out at the palazzo for a while.

As we were getting cold and bored (and on an art overdose), we returned to the same restaurant as last night. Last night, in addition to having boar as a second course, Jason had this amazing ravioli served in a creamy mushroom sauce. By the time we got there, we were soaked. We had an (very) early supper where Monique had that same ravioli and Jason also had ravioli, but this time with truffle sauce. For the second course, we both had scallopini, Jason's was served with a lemon-parsley sauce and Monique's with a wine sauce... Jason had "sauce envy" as Monique's was really good!

That is about it for now. At this point in time, we are planning  to finally go to Lucca tomorrow for a day trip, as we have pretty much seen everything that we wanted in Florence.