Day 14: 10 July 2010

Early morning today as we have a long 5hr. drive to Florence ahead of us.  Decided over breakfast today that while we didn’t love this area, the hotel was a great find and value. Ironically it is the second lowest priced hotel of our trip, in what is otherwise an expensive area. Meridiana was clean, the staff was friendly, and our stay included parking and breakfast.  Speaking of breakfast, that’s one thing I do miss about home.  Every morning no matter where we’ve stay, breakfast is about the same…croissants, sandwich bread, deli meats and cheese, hard rolls, fresh fruit, cereal, yogurt, and some kind of Italian pound cake dusted with confectionary sugar. To most people (including Joe) that probably sounds great. Unfortunately, I only like some of the bread and the dense yellow cake that sits like a brick in your stomach for the rest of the day! Forget whole grains and added fiber here…everything is white flour.  Can’t wait to have eggs and French toast when we get home!

Hit the road by 8am.  The drive from Naples to Rome is not very exciting or pretty.  My favorite part was the sunflower fields north of Rome!  Arrived in a residential neighborhood of Florence at the Best Western Gabriele D’Annuncio in Florence by 1:30pm.  Took only a little while to get our bearings, and the we were en route to the center on Bus 10.

Florence is a bigger than I thought.  For some reason, I pictured it to be a quaint town, but in reality it’s a pretty big city. Most of the sites are in the pedestrian only area that only some taxis and minibuses are allowed to drive on.  We got off at Piazza San Marco and went straight to the Accademia.  To our surprise, we were able to reserve day of tickets 10 minutes from when we bought them.  Our ration of peanut butter crackers are gone, so we broke down and bought Magnum ice cream bars at the supermarket to tie us over.  Took Rick Steves’ audiotour of the Accademia.  From the grafitti on the walls and plain entrance, you would never know this building houses anything famous.  Walked by some unfinished Michaelangelo sculptures and then, there he was…Michaelangelo’s David that is!  Talk about impressive! I expected David to be the height of regular human, but he’s huge..and so real and detailed!  We marveled at the sculpture for a while before moving on to see the only other attraction, some early harpsichords and the Medici violins.

Afterwards, we walked to the very distinctive looking Duomo. The outside has elaborate designs of green, white and pink marble with a huge dome and tower. The outside is similar to Siena’s Cathedral, but with more elaborate designs. Supposedly the nave inside is the 3^rd largest in the world, but it didn’t feel extremely big.  For such a grand outside, the inside is disappointing.  The walls, arches, and altar of the Cathedral are very plain. Its rival Duomo in Siena definitely takes the prize for beauty inside, minus the dome.

Speaking of the dome, we didn’t make it in time to go to the top, but we were pleasantly surprised to learn that an English Mass had just started.  We both must have been exhausted from the heat outside because we both dozed off during Mass. What I do remember is that one of three priests gave a good homily about his own Good Samaritan experience when he was traveling in Egypt, and that the reason we don’t have enough priests in the U.S. is because they’re all over here. Almost every Mass we’ve been to has had multiple priests at it, and nuns are everywhere!  Apparently there is a youth presence here, too, since there were people advertising an English speaking young adult group, too.  The Church is apparently alive and well here in Florence.                

Back out in the heat, we tried unsuccessfully to get an early dinner.  Most places were still on siesta, though, so of course we just had to get gelato instead.  Florence is supposedly known for its gelato and gelato festival so we made sure to try a few kinds here.  The chocolate at Vivoli’s was pretty tasty, but not the best straciatella I’ve had.  Joe is on a fruit kick now so he enjoyed the fragola.  One plus was that the shop was air conditioned.  It is pretty hot and humid here in Florence, comparable to the nearly unbearable heat at the Forum in Rome, but maybe worse!

The heat wasn’t as bad closer to sunset, and down by the Arno River.  Took some nice pictures by the Ponte Vecchio and tried to find Caitlin’s lock (no luck!) before heading to dinner.  Caitlin recommended Acqua Due so we decided to check it out.  Tried the pasta sampler with five surprise pastas and the steak sampler.  The pasta was decent, but the most delicious part of the meal was the balsamic steak!  Finally, some red meat in our diet here!  This is definitely not a locals place as everyone around us was from the United States (or Canada).  The restaurant also has two locations in the U.S. in San Diego and Washington D.C. The food was not the homecooked meals we’ve loved at smaller local places, but everything was still tasty.

We ended the night outside the Uffizi and Palazzo Vecchio where a British street performer was giving a concert on his guitar.  He sang all American songs, including “Country Roads” twice to a mostly English-speaking crowd, and people sang along.  As we listened to the concert, I couldn’t help thinking that Florence might as well be the Italian section of an American city.  All day the streets were overrun with American tourists, and just about everyone here speaks English here. Maybe that’s why so many Americans like it here…it’s easy to be a tourist.  (Update - The artists name is Ken Mercer and he has been doing this for at least 10 years. To hear his story click here) Following the concert, we caught a bus back to the hotel and called it a night our nice air conditioned room.