Europe 8: Florence

Monteriggioni

 On Wednesday, July 6, 2022, Linette, Sienna, Isabel and I left Siena and headed towards Florence. Along the way, we stopped at a tiny, walled, medieval town called Monteriggioni.

It was built by the Sienese in 1214-1219 A.D. as a front line in their wars against Florence.

As with most Italian towns, there was a church facing the main plaza.

It was simpler than most we had seen, but still a quiet, cool respite from the heat outside.

Not sure what this dude's deal was, but it was cool.

It didn't take long to walk across the whole town.

I thought this house was cute.

Awww...

From just outside the town there was an overlook with nice views of the vineyards below.

Colle di Val d'Elsa

A few more minutes down the road, we stopped at a little town called Colle di Val d'Elsa, though we didn't go up to the old part of town on the hill. 

Instead, we just decided to eat lunch at a hole-in-the-wall kabab place with good reviews.

The place was a dive, so we were wondering what we were getting ourselves into, but it was really tasty.

I had read about a nice hike along a river there, so we parked in a neighborhood and hoped our car would still be there when we got back.

We walked by someone's garden, and they had a funny scarecrow.

As soon as we got near the river, the shade and the water made it really pleasant.

The water was so inviting that we all decided to put our feet in.

We really wished we could jump in and swim, because it was a warm day and the water was so clear and cool! But alas, we hadn't worn our swim suits on the hike, and kind of needed to be in Florence by a certain time. So we just hung out there for a while and then headed back.

Florence

Our AirBnB in Florence was on the fourth floor of an old building, and the door was so short (and round) that it seemed like it was for hobbits. Plus its doorknob was in the middle.

The girls wasted no time at getting set up on the wifi.

We walked a ways to get there, so Sienna was pretty hot.

There are two slightly different sized plugs in Italy, so Sienna had to use one adapter for that, another to US plugs, and another to USB for her charger. So she made this meme.

Linette drove the car to the only reasonable parking garage I had been able to find, which was a 25 minute walk away. So I walked towards her and met her halfway.

I accidentally found some gelato along the way.

Our AirBnB was on the fourth floor of a building by the river. Our bedroom had a great view of the river.

Soon after Linette and I got back there, it started pouring rain. Here you can see the tourists getting soaked. You can hear thunder towards the end.

The view was great from up there.

The rain soon cleared, and we walked out to explore the town. Here is a secret passage that the Medici family used to go between buildings for security purposes.

We soon came across the Piazza della Signoria, a main plaza in town. The Loggia dei Lanzi is an arched, open building with statues inside.

This one seemed harsh but very cool.

We walked into the Palazzo Vecchio (old palace) there, and could see a tower through the courtyard.

There was a piano there that said "play me". We watched a middle-aged lady with a hair bandana play a song ("She's still got it!"), and then Sienna took a turn. I thought it was fun that several people were videoing her on their cell phones as she played.

Back out in the square, we saw that an orchestra was practicing. The viola soloist was outstanding! I think they were mostly checking mics and stuff, because they cut things off once they had the idea, but I could have listened to her for a while. Here's a little sample.

In case you want more, here is another clip of a faster song (20 seconds):

And if you still want more, here's one more little dramatic tune (33 seconds). In this one, I think it's fun how happy the tourist in front of me seems to be to be there.

As we walked down a narrow street, we saw a cool toy store and ended up inside for a while. In fact, the girls started playing with the magnetic toys like little kids.

So I joined them.

Here's a quick video showing the magical floating planet toys, and our creations, including my little functioning swing.

As we walked further down the street, we suddenly saw the Florence Cathedral in front of us.

We were pretty hungry at this point, and couldn't beat that view, so we decided to sit down right there and have lunch. I pointed at the outdoor table right there and the waiter nodded that we could sit there.

Sienna and Isabel were being goofy while we waited for the food to come.

Isabel laughed really hard when I went to pour some water and realized that the lid was still on.

Here Sienna helpfully reenacts it.

Here's a little video showing the surroundings.

The food was wonderful.

The Florence Cathedral (Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, or "Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Flower") was begun in 1296 and was structurally complete by 1436. It has green and pink marble panels that give a striking appearance. Linette and I had been inside with Erika and the Kartchners on our former visit to Florence, but we didn't go in this time.

After dinner, we wandered the streets for a bit.

Then we headed over to Ponte Vecchio (the famous "Old Bridge") to watch the sunset. As we approached, there was a guy playing some perky music on the guitar, as you can hear in this video.

The sun had a ways to go when we first arrived, but there was a party atmosphere at the bridge, so it was fun to hang out there.

The sunset did not disappoint as it started getting lower.

Boats on the river were beautiful with the sunset behind them.

There were many selfies, which are hard to do get right against a sunset.

As the sun went down, we enjoyed just chilling on the bridge.

Here is Ponte Vecchio from a little way up the road. It hosts a bunch of shops during the day.

We hit a gelato place with unexpectedly high prices, but it was good.

This tree sculpture with roots was interesting.

We headed back to our AirBnB. I noticed a plethora of toilets and bidets on the interior courtyard of our building. Not sure what was up with that.

Our AirBnB had low ceilings, so I felt like I should duck when I walked under the beams. It was charming, though.

The first night, we played a card game at the table, and Linette noticed that people could see right into each others rooms. There was one room across the courtyard that was empty but lit up, and clearly they could see into our room as well as we could see into theirs. "Well, hello!" Linette jokingly said, to express how exposed we felt.

Sienna turned to the window and waved to go along with that sentiment. At that exact moment, a lady walked in front of the lit-up bedroom window, brushing her teeth, and looked right at Sienna as she was waving. She turned around and turned off the light and we were really embarrassed. Oops.

The next day we walked through Florence again, seeing the Florence Cathedral again along the way.

We went to the Galleria dell’Accademia, which is famous for housing The David sculpture by Michelangelo. It had a lot of other great artwork as well, including on the ceilings.

It also had some creepy artwork. I think this is trying to represent the cherubim, described in the Bible as having 6 wings.

There were a few sculptures called "The Prisoners" by Michelangelo, which looked incomplete, leaving the sculptures "trapped" in the marble.

I loved the Palestrina Pietá, a sculpture by Michelangelo showing Mary and St. John the Evangelist holding up the lifeless body of Christ.

The David stands in an archway that makes it especially impressive.

A close-up of the face reminded me of Frodo from Lord of the Rings.

Linette commented on what a fine ear Sienna had, and how it looked like David's.

There is a room that displays various musical instruments. There was a painting that showed the kind of gatherings people had where they got together and jammed.

This instrument is a "Hurdy-Gurdy", and is played by turning a handle to play the strings, and pushing keyboard buttons to change the pitch.

It was funny how many people were taking pictures of the David at the same time.

I still think he ought to throw on a loin cloth or something. But, as Michelangelo said, God puts the sculpture in the marble, and it is up to the artist to find it. Apparently there were no pants in there.

Every time we passed by the cathedral, I kept being impressed.

We found an outdoor spot for lunch that had a mist machine to keep us a little cool.

Then we continued wandering until our next museum appointment.

Gandalf said, "Not all who wander are lost." Especially when there is gelato to be had.

That afternoon, we went into the Uffizi Museum, which we had not been to on our previous trip to Florence. 

There were a lot of incredible sculptures and paintings there.

The Tosh Room

As in other places, the ceilings were spectacular as well.

I would caution, however, against doing two major museums in the same day. In our case, it was the only full day we had, but we were all pretty tired and my feet were giving out.

I liked this display of the Seven Virtues.

They had the famous painting Primavera ("Spring"), painted by Sandro Botticelli about 1480.

They also had The Birth of Venus, also by Sandro Botticelli in the mid-1480s.

From the second floor window, we had a bit of a view of Florence.

There were some coffins that were adorned with intricate reliefs. I happened to notice that the kid in this one is playing a V-shaped double flute, where you play two notes at once.

For some reason, I really liked this painting of a book. (I wonder if it's a book about paintings?)

Many of the paintings were religious. Here is the angel making the announcement to Mary.

Here is the "Adoration of the [Christ] Child".

After 3 hours, the museum mercifully closed and kicked us out, just as we had finished the main circuit. It was awesome stuff, but we were pretty wiped out by then.

The girls went back to the AirBnB while Linette and I rested at the main square and listened to a guitar guy and a violin guy. I took a little nap on the stone steps while Linette did some scripture study.

While we sat there, I enjoyed seeing this little Italian boy running around chasing pigeons. He seemed so delighted!

As we walked back to the AirBnB, I walked across the bridge close to our place and got a picture of Ponte Vecchio with the sunset going on behind it (but too far around the corner to quite see).

I loved what the sunset was doing to this storm cloud over the river.

Since we were in Italy and needed to veg, we decided to watch "Luca", the movie about the fish boys who turn into humans when on dry land, and dream of someday having a Vespa.

Here is Sienna crying about the movie, and Isabel laughing at Sienna crying. :D

Speaking of art and paintings on ceilings, our bedroom at the AirBnB had quite the painting on the ceiling! I asked the host about it, and she said that the painting was done in the 1890s when this building was converted from a palace into a hotel. We felt like we were sleeping in a museum!

In the next episode, we explore Venice!