Florence was a fairly easy and short high-speed train journey from Rome. This time we were not travelling on Italo, but the state-run TrenItalia's FrecciaRossa high-speed trains. This train hit the magic 300km/h between Rome and Florence, something I was hoping for and it was going to be our last opportunity to try and hit such speeds during our trip. So, for a last hurrah on European high speed rail, I was happy!
The Hostel was only about 2 blocks away from the train station which made life a bit easier, but the notes said the hostel would only take cash - and we hadn't enough on us, but I learned very quickly that Florence Railway Station has a wealth of ticket machines but no ATM's at all, not even in the general vicinity that we could find. I ended up getting the money out from a Currency Exchange place, but when we got to the hostel we were able to pay with card after all! The hostel was not big, and we had a private room to ourselves at the far end of the corridor right next to the kitchen and the lone shared bathroom. Our room had two single beds, which had very saggy wire bases and we quickly worked out that putting the two beds together was not going to work - so we ended up taking the matresses off the bases, putting the mattresses side by side on the floor and stacking the bed bases against the wall.
The window had been opened by the cleaner before we arrived, which let in a cool breeze but also let in something else - a whole lot of mosquitos. We worked this out pretty quick, and closed the window but the damage already seemed to have been done. Both nights, not only did we swelter in the heat of the room in order to stop further mosquitos from getting in the window, but we had to contend with all the mosquitos inside the room. I don't often get bit by mozzies, so Sasha was taking most of the brunt. There was no mosquito spray, nothing really to repel them, so the only thing we could do was kill as many as we could before bed, and at various periods during the night when they were sufficiently bothering us. By the time we went to bed the 2nd night, we'd managed to kill all but one mozzie which we just could not get - but it must have been a male as it never managed to get us. Given the somewhat basic setup of the hostel, its sub-par amenities and facilities, plus this awful mozzie infestation, our Florence accommodation rates among some of the worst accommodation we've experienced.
There are a number of statues around the place of Michaelangelo's David - full scale, smaller scale, but only one is original and that is in Florence. I don't care a huge amount for statues, but given this statue has a standing equal to the likes of the Sistine Chapel Artwork (also by Michaelangelo) or the Mona Lisa, we had to go see it. Sasha had already seen it on a previous trip, and had mentioned every time how little David's Winkie seemed to be.
We arrived at the museum very early, were among the first into the Museum for that day and we were also very surprised at how cheap the admission for the museum was - about 8 Euros, which was far cheaper than anything online said it would be and certainly way cheaper than places trying to sell you skip-the-queue tickets said it would be. The museum even had signs saying that if you'd paid more for tickets well that was between you and the ticket seller, its not anything to do with them. We went in, turned a corner and at the far end of the hall was David, all lit up on his pedestal.
The David Statue is definitely more impressive in the original form than any of the copies I'd seen - there's something about Marble vs say Copper or Concrete. But Sasha was right - David's winkie seemed unusually small given the rest of the stature of the statue, particularly the hands. Or at least, we think so. We also did spend a bit of time looking around the rest of this museum (and it filled up with people pretty quick), including areas Sasha hadn't even seen last time including a gallery of Musical instruments. I quite liked this museum and thought it was good value - just don't get scalped by other ticket resellers, get them direct from the source!
We had a good wander around Florence - Florence is perhaps best known for its massive Cathedral which sits right in the centre of the city. Its a very imposing structure, almost impossible to photograph from the ground and fit it all in, almost constantly surrounded by people - and for us, impossible to visit. You had to get tickets in advance, which we had not done as last time Sasha just rocked up - but this is no longer possible. No matter, we've seen lots of churches and Cathedral's so far! There is a lot of statues and artwork dotted around Florence, with some of it being in a kind of open-air museum area just in the middle of some of the pedestrian streets. Also there's the Ponte Vecchio - a medieval-era bridge which basically has buildings down each side of it, with lots of shops and presumably some apartments too as the buildings are a couple of storeys high. It is a very busy bridge, and there are a lot of shops which sell gold jewellery on it for some reason.
One thing Sasha suggested we do, and I was keen do to was see the sun set over Florence from the vantage point of the Piazzale Michelangelo. The Piazza is named after the artist Michelangelo once again, and there's even a replica statue of David here though I never paid any attention to it while we were there! We clambered up the steep pathways hoping to be able to stake a good spot some hours before sunset, which we were able to - but we were by far not the first and all the good sitting spots were taken, so we stood. We came prepared with supplies - a dinner of cheese and crackers, with some red wine in a tetra-pak carton. One thing we'd discovered in Italy unlike elsewhere is 90% of the wine is in corked bottles, not screw cap - and we didn't have a corkscrew. We were faced between a choice of Sparkling Wine which wasn't cold (and couldn't be kept cold), or wine from a tetra-pak carton (which we could get Red wine, which doesn't need to be cold). We went with the latter and used our little transportable cups with the lids to drink it from.
There was a lot of people around here - we saw what seemed to be big tour groups, all glammed up come and get their group photo with the city in the background and then carry on to their dinner destination, lots of people like us having picnics watching the sunset. There was even a proposal at one point - everyone cheered and clapped, the couple seemed a bit embarrassed at the attention but the most striking thing for us was that afterwards, they spent most of the time talking to other people and very little amount of time talking to each other and showing excitement at their new status. We met a few people while waiting as well - a newlywed couple from the US who were on their honeymoon, who had travelled to some of the same places we had or were going to places we were, or we were going to places they'd been - so we were trading stories and advice. After they left, another couple took their spot, whom we had a conversation with also but less engaging than the first lot. Lastly just after sunset happened and that couple left, two British girls took their place armed with bottles of Bubbly. Faced with the same conundrum as us on the wine front, they'd gone the warm Sparkling Wine route and were regretting it! We spent quite some time watching the city get dark and also lit up, before wandering our way collectively towards the train station. The two girls had booked accommodation near a train station, but didn't realise till late in the piece that it wasn't the main train station so had to catch a train into central Florence and back from that station. Their main problem - it was now too late and they'd missed their last train back! I think they ended up catching a taxi but we all had a delightfully tipsy walk and discussion through the city in the hot night weather.
Oh yes the sunset - it was very pretty and well worth the wait!
While in Florence we did make a trip to Pisa to see its famous Leaning Tower. Was abut a 45min train ride from Florence, and after arrival we walked through the city, had lunch at a place we'd researched beforehand, and then proceeded to the complex with the Tower and Cathedral. Sasha had been here once before, but had not climbed the leaning tower - she had no inclination to (no pun intended). I however thought that I might want to - I know Dad did, but Mum didn't and as a kid I'm sure Dad said that he had found the ascent up the stairs and walking around the viewing levels a bit scary with that lean. So we got tickets to do the climb, wandered around until near our appointed time, went to the cloak room to store our bags (which weren't allowed up), joined the line for entry at our appointed time, and after a quick briefing we started the climb up the narrow stairs. It took quite some time to get to the top, and the lean of the tower made it a bit difficult but not unmanageable.
The view was fairly nice, but the most striking thing was the surreal nature of being on the lean relative to the tower. There were two levels to wander around - a top level and a lower level, with some people seemingly not game enough to go up the top more "open" level. We spent quite a bit of time up the tower as there was no time limit on being up there, before eventually making our descent and then finding a spot to do those touristy posing-shots with the tower. You can't go on the lawn, and the only way to make them work now is to stand on a bollard thats part of a fence - not so easy but it worked!
For a cultural wonder, its pretty neat - it was the Belltower for the nearby Cathedral (which we also went inside) and yes it does have bells up the top of it, although they are mounted in such a way to make them correct for the towers lean! The tower cannot lean any further as its tilt has been arrested thanks to pioneering engineering which have given the tower much more secure foundations. Whether it technically leans more or less than when Dad climbed the tower, I don't know - but I know I certainly felt more comfortable up the Leaning Tower of Pisa than I did when we climbed that Belltower in Split, Croatia!
So our food experience in Florence started off with Lunch. Last time Sasha had been in Florence, she'd wanted to partake in the local kind of lunch menu's put on by various restaurants in the city - but she'd turned up at 12.30 to a place that opened at 12, and was told there was no room and had missed out. We did not want to miss out this time - and as they only happen on weekdays and this was Friday, it was going to be our only opportunity. Sasha had found the locations of two likely places - one in the main part of the city, and one across the river outside of the CBD. Reasoning our chances of getting in were better with the one across the river, we did a circuit of the city before heading for L'Brindellone in order to get there for when it opened at 12pm. We got there about 11.50am, and saw a sign on the door which said it opened at 12.30pm. Sasha got angry and upset as we'd had a bit of bad luck with misinformation lately when it came to food places, and kept referring to Google and the internet said it would open at 12pm. Personally I wasn't too fussed - we'd walked all this way, sure waiting an extra 30 minutes wasn't great but as far as I was concerned we'd wait it out until they opened. Until then, we could hang around in the shade next to the bus stop where a little old lady was standing.
About 5 minutes later the old lady muttered something in our direction, and headed for the restaurant door. She hadn't been waiting for a bus - she was waiting for the restaurant. A few other people showed up, and started hovering. The old lady knocked, opened the door of the restaurant and started talking to the person inside. The person inside spoke loudly, then slammed the door in her face and loudly locked the door - it seemed quite rude and we were rather shocked! The old lady wasn't phased though, and a few other old people started hanging around with her outside the door talking. A few minutes later, the door unlocks, they all rush in and we end up on the tail of this crowd of old folk entering the restaurant - they are all being hugged and greeted by the staff, so the old lady and her group must be regulars there and the slamming of the door must have been a bit of banter amongst friends! We got shown to a seat near the mid-back of the restaurant in a nice little corner.
We were given a menu, but it was the normal menu - we knew they were supposed to have a set menu which was why we were there, which we asked for and were given. The menu was in Italian, and a photocopy of a handwritten menu! We had to get the waiter to explain it to us, but there was a reasonable amount of choices for the 1st course (pasta) and the 2nd course (meat dish). He took our 1st course order, and told us he would get our 2nd course choice later and went to leave. Sasha interjected with "Can we get some wine?" as that was part of the set menu deal. "Yes" he said as he carried off towards the kitchen. What was going on? had he understood us, or just said yes because that's what he thought he should say? Very soon he was back with a carafe of red wine - he chose for us to go with our food choices so far, which we thought was fantastic. Our pasta dishes were delicious, and once finished we were asked for our 2nd course choices - Sasha went with Beef Stew, and I went with Rabbit with Olives. He then asked which sides we wanted with them - this threw us as we had no idea sides were an option, nor what the choices were. A quick rattle off of the options, we decided to get one side of Salad and one side of Fries, which we would share between us.
Our sides were quickly produced, and not long after our mains. "Here is your beef stew" he said to Sasha "and here is your cat... I mean rabbit!" to me. We laughed - although our waiter had seemed a bit brusque it seemed he had a sense of humour! our rappor with him changed a bit better after because of that, though I have to say it did leave me wondering as the Rabbit didn't quite taste like the rabbit I've had in the past. Rabbit or Cat, it was very tasty! Once we'd finished our courses, we were asked if we wanted coffee (part of the set menu deal) - we said yes, and we each got an espresso shot. We'd also gotten some water and bread for the table, and we were sure that not all of what we'd had would be included in the set menu. But no, all of it was - for a princely sum of 10 euro's each. 10 Euros! It had been amazing and as we paid the waiter I complimented him on the very tasty cat dish. "We make very good cat around here!" he said with a wry smile. It had been the most amazing and interesting lunch experience, but I still can't help but wonder - did I actually eat cat?
Dinner that night was our picnic of cheeses, crackers, and fruits to have while watching the sunset along with not one, but two 1L cartons of Red Wine (as mentioned earlier, we have no corkscrew and screw-top bottles in Italy are rare-to-non-existent). Breakfast was from supplies, but that didn't stop us from getting a coffee and croissant while waiting also waiting to enter the David Gallery as we'd had little-to-no-sleep and also were still a bit peckish. Lunch was in Pisa, at Pizzeria Le Mura - we sat in the glassed-off area out on the curb outside, and ate two delicious pizza's while Sasha had a wine to accompany it while I had a beer - one of the 660ml bottles of beer, this time a brand I'd seen around which was ok but not as great as the Peroni. For dinner that night, we managed to talk ourselves out of the quick, easy but pricey option of McDonalds and instead went to the supermarket and got some food. We ended up walking out with another one of the fruit platters like we'd gotten in Rome, except this time half the fruit seemed off. Not really hungry and also tired, we didn't attempt to get anything else for dinner. Breakfast the following morning was again a croissant and a coffee while we waited to board our train to Cinque Terre.
Gelato? Yes we did. Not from the place we found that had over 100 varieties of Gelato, as we got very quickly overwhelmed with the array of choice and had to get out of there. Its hard enough having 10 different flavours to choose from sometimes! I do not recall what I got, but I do know one of the gelato flavours I ended up with was a very bright purple in colour.
Summing Up
Pisa was a highlight for me, which is almost completely an aside from Florence but will always be a part of our Florence experience for me. I loved the meal where I may have eaten cat, seeing Michaelangelo's David in person was oddly more interesting than I expected, watching the sunset over the city was also a great time, with the city's Duomo dominating the view. At the time when we left, I was very ambivalent about Florence and didn't care too much for it, but I was tired from two nights spent in a sweltering room wondering when we might next get attacked by the mosquitos in the room. Looking back now, I think if I ever got the chance I'd like to give Florence another crack - maybe spend a bit more time there, definitely stay somewhere mosquito-free. But Florence would not be a priority and if I never manage to make it back there, then that too is fine.
Had Florence been the last place on our travels within Italy, it might have tempered my view of the country somewhat. It wasn't, and the next destination was quite something - but that's the subject of the next post!