Fabulous Firenze

Off to Europe

Kathy and I are off to Italy and Austria for two weeks. Calvary Chapel is hosting a conference, Refresh Europe, at their Schloss Heroldeck conference center in Millstatt, Austria. We're going with a group of 34 volunteers from Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, to serve during the conference.

Instead of flying directly to Austria, the organizers always try to stop for three or four days en-route to give the volunteers some time to decompress, sight-see, and get over jet lag. This year they chose Florence, Italy.

Our flight was on Swiss Air, with a transfer in Zurich for Florence. It was nice traveling on a "coach" with the other tour members up to LAX. Having someone else worry about the details of getting us there was liberating. We got to the airport a little before 4 pm (for a 7 pm flight). We had to stand in line for checking our bags and getting our boarding passes; but there were plenty of people to talk to.

On to Zurich. That's Linda Rourke, the trip organizer, smiling in the background.

The flight left on time, and we got to Zurich and then had a two-hour layover before our flight to Florence, which also left and landed on time, right before a thunderstorm closed the airport. All remaining flights were cancelled, and we sat on the tarmac, (fortunately with the air-conditioning working) being rocked and pummeled by the storm for over an hour before we could deplane.

The bus to the hotel.

Because of the thunderstorm, though, about a third of the luggage for passengers on our plane never got delivered. Fortunately, that only affected one of our group, but we spent quite a bit of time at the airport, waiting to be taken to our hotel, where we finally arrived at 10 pm. Our hotel, the Adler Cavalieri, is in the city center, near the train station.

Kathy and I went to our room, unpacked, and then headed out to get a bite to eat. It was much cooler than it has been (because of the thunderstorm), but sill more humid than we were used to. We walked down to the area around the Duomo (the central cathedral) and found an authentic Italian Pizza restaurant still open. Surprisingly, the menu was entirely in English, even though all of the clientele seemed to be Italian.

Authentic Italian Pizza in Florence, Italy

We shared a salami pizza and then had some genuine Florentine gelato, in the city where it was invented (according to the city literature). It was midnight by the time we headed back to our hotel and crashed, oh-so-thankfully in an air-conditioned room.

On to the Accademia

Staying up until after midnight didn't cure my jet-lag. I woke up about 5:30 am and by 6:30 I couldn't stay in bed any longer. I got up and took a long walk while Kathy got ready. I wanted to see the Arno river that runs though town.

The Ponte Vecchio in the early morning.

I walked as far at the covered Ponte Vecchio bridge, and then turned back to get to breakfast. I really, really like walking in the early morning. It's cool and you're not distracted with people and traffic. I walked in and looked around the Santa Trinita church.

Santa Tinita in the early morning.

Across from the church was the Ferragamo store (Florence was Salvatorre Ferragamo's home) and I spent some time browsing through the windows.

Michelangelo's David

Florence, the home of the Renaissance, is all about art and museums. However, unlike the Netherlands, the lines to see the most famous museums are blocks long, and that's just to buy a ticket. Cynic that I am, I can't help wondering if that is intentional; you see, if you spend 85 € on a 3-day Florence Card, you can skip most of the lines. Most other countries have a similar "museum pass" and we often buy them. Here, the money is well spent, since seeing the museums without it (or making a reservation ahead of time), is not really feasible.

Steve, David, Kathy, and unknown tourist.

At the Tourist Information Office, where we went to purchase our cards, we ran into Ellie and Ken James (friends from our Calvary Chapel team) who had purchased their cards online, but had to redeem them for the physical cards in Florence. Once the four of us had our cards, we decided to go together to see Michelangelo's David at the Accademia Museum.

When we got there, we saw the long lines and a museum employee told us that we could buy tickets, but not for today, because all of the reservations were sold out. When we told him we had a Florence Card, he directed us to a much shorter line, and we were inside in 10 minutes. As Ken James said, "If I don't do anything else, skipping that line made the Florence Card worth it."

Michelangelo's David

Like walking off the train in Venice, or seeing the Ishtar Gates of Babylon in Berlin, the David is a sight that lives up to its reputation; you aren't disappointed when you see it (which is how I felt with the Mona Lisa).  The second thing that the museum has that is awesome, is the series of unfinished Michelangelo sculptures; it is uncanny seeing a rock with a figure emerging from it.

Although the entrance was air conditioned, the rest of the museum was stifling hot and humid, at least for our Southern California sensibilities; we quickly looked at the additional rooms with paintings and sculptured heads (think of the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland), and then headed out for lunch.

I was determined to eat at one of Rick Steve's recommended restaurants, Trattoria Mario. Using Google Maps we tracked it down across from the Mercado Centrale, a revived indoor central market and food pavilion. When we found the restaurant, though, the locals told us that it closes for August.

As we walked over to look through the Mercado Centrale, we walked right by Du Pinocchio, where a young lady name Guilys, whom we met on the plane to Florence, worked. After touring the Mercado, (getting hotter and stickier), we headed back there and had a wonderful lunch.

Steve, Kathy, Guilys, Ellie, and Ken at Du Pinnochio

Kathy and Ken both had truffle ravioli, while Ellie tried the pear ravioli. I had some traditional bean soup and linguine with scampi. 

Lunch at Du Pinnochio

Like the famous scene in Mr. Bean Goes to Europe, I wasn't really prepared to have my lunch looking at me before I ate it.

Lunch at Du Pinnochio

He was, however, delicious.

The Duomo and Ponte Vecchio

Even with the Florence card, there is one site that you still need to get an physical ticket for, that's the central cathedral, known as the Duomo (dome), for obvious reasons. We didn't want to tour the church or the museum today, but we went ahead and got the tickets for another day on the way back to the hotel.

Florence Duomo

Getting the tickets was mostly uneventful. There were no reservations available until August 13 to climb to the top of the dome (something that doesn't sound that nice in the heat and humidity), but we were able to get the tickets to visit the museum, the crypt, and the bell tower. No ticket is needed for the church itself, but for that you have to stand in another long line to get in. Maybe early in the morning on Friday.

The Ponte Vecchio covered bridge.

We decided we weren't up to visiting another museum, so we headed down to the river to see the famous Ponte Vecchio covered bridge. Our daughter, Hosanna Rubio, is a metalsmith, so we wanted to see where the original jewelry guild's of Florence had their homes.

Sitting on the Ponte Vecchio Bridge

The bridge was also wonderful because there was a breeze. By this time, escaping the heat became our number one priority. We bought some overpriced (but much appreciated) gelato, and ate it in the shade on the bridge, with a pleasant breeze drying our clothes. By the time we finished, we were ready to trek back to the hotel.

Pervasive hitching rings on buildings through Florence.

Along the way, Kathy was intrigued by these iron ornaments that showed up on so many of the buildings. Looking it up online, she found that they were hitches for the horse-drawn carriages from the thirteenth century. Once you first notice them, they're everywhere.

I had wanted to get back at two to try out the local custom of a pisolino or riposa (siesta to we Califonians). We didn't get back until four, but I gave it a try anyway. Slept until seven, and then started working on the blog entry for today.   

Ken and Ellie invited us to join a group of them for dinner, but we weren't ready to go out again. Instead, they picked us up a small pizza which we ate before crashing.

Tomorrow we have to be at breakfast at seven, because we're leaving on an all-day bike trip to the Tuscan hill towns of Sienna and San Gimignano. Time for sleep.