Dec 26 - We were off to Florence late in the afternoon. We walked to the train station and went to the wrong track and ended up running to catch the train, which we made literally with only a minute to spare. There were two listings for Florence – no train numbers, just the track numbers were listed. The train ride was about 2 hours. We arrived at our hotel, the Hotel Pitti Palace, which was in an old castle. The hotel is contained within the walls of the "Torre dei Rossi" (Rossi Tower), which dates back to 1200. The rooms were very small. The hotel is right next to the Ponte Vecchio Bridge.
The Ponte Vecchio Bridge was the first bridge built in Florence. The bridge has gold and jewelry shops on each side of it. Near the bridge there are chains full of locks. These are the locks of love. Tradition is that lovers write their name on the lock and throw the key into the nearby river. Rumor has it that a nearby locksmith started the tradition to sell more locks.
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| Ponte Vecchio Bridge |
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| On Ponte Vecchio Bridge |
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| Locks of Love |
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| Jewelry store on the bridge |
We went out for dinner and found a small place that was in a basement. It only had about 15 tables. The food was very good. Some of the meals said “spicy” which we didn’t believe them, but they were really spicy, not like the food in Rome.
Dec. 27 – Florence – We started at the Palazzo Vecchio, which was just across the bridge from the hotel. The Palazzo Vecchio is the town hall and a museum with artwork from many famous Italian artists such as Michelangelo, da Vinci and Donatello. While there, we saw the Damien Hirst “For the Love of God”. For the Love of God is a platinum life-size model of a human skull covered in 1,106.8 carats of pure and almost flawless small diamonds (8,601 diamonds).
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| Fresco inside Palazzo Vecchio |
Next we walked to the Piazza del Duomo. We went to the Baptistery of San Giovanni, which is one of the most beautiful examples of Roman architecture. It was built in the 11th century. The bronze doors to the Baptistery had biblical scenes on them. At the Cathedral of Santa Marie del Fiore and Jay, Kevin and Brian climbed to the top of the bell tower which has 413 stairs to the top. We met a couple in the cathedral, who just moved to Karlstad, Sweden and their daughter from South Carolina, who was on her college break. We ended up having dinner with them at a place called Gilli’s, which was very good. The boys were amazed how expensive dinner was for four.
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| Palazzo Vecchio |
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| Baptistery of San Giovanni |
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| Baptistery of San Giovanni |
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| Bell Tower |
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| Cathedral of Santa Marie del Fiore |
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| View from the bell tower |
Dec. 28 – Florence – Breakfast at the hotel was crowded, we had to wait for a table, definitely not enough room in the breakfast area for the number of rooms at the hotel. We were going to go to the Uffizi Gallery, but since we didn’t have reservations the line was too long to wait. We would have to wait over 2 hours to get in. I am sure it would have been worth it, but we had too many other things we wanted to see. We went to the Academy Gallery where we saw the Statute of David, along with other beautiful statutes and paintings. As you walk around Florence you will also find replica statues of David. We walked to the Pitti Palace, which has housed three royal dynasties and the palace contains their collections in the museum. The museum is the largest museum in the city. Also on the grounds of the Palace is the Buboli Gardens. We also walked to Fort Belvedere which has been closed since two people have fallen at the exact same spot and died as a result of the fall. We went to The Basilica of Santa Croce and Church of Santo Spirito.
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| Pitti Palace and Buboli Gardens |
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| Basilica of Santa Croce |
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| Inside the Church of Santo Spirito |
Went to a small restaurant, Pino’s Bar, for dinner. It had only 5 tables and the food was very good and inexpensive. After dinner, Brian and Kevin wanted dessert. There were places on the Ponte Vecchio Bridge that sold fresh made waffles, they really smelled good. Brian got one, which was a double waffle with chocolate in the middle and it cost 12 Euros ($15). Definitely not worth 12 Euros. Kevin got a Gelato. For good luck, we had to put a coin in the mouth of a bronze wild boar near the market.
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