Statues, Saints & Steak

Steak Florentine in Florence

Today (Friday) is our last day in Florence, and our plan was to see as many museums as possible.  We went (again) with Ken and Ellie James, who had also purchased Firenze cards, which allow you access to almost all the museums in Florence (except for the Gucci museum), and which, according to our guidebook and the PBS travel shows we're addicted to, let you "skip the line".

Firenze Cards and More

Our first stop was the Duomo museum, where the artifacts from the Duomo were moved after the disastrous flood of 1966, which covered almost all of Florence. Along the way, we couldn't help but admire the architecture of the buildings along the way. The details on this Art Nouveau building were extraordinary.

Art Nouveau building in Florence

The Duomo Museum

The line to get into the Duomo stretched all the way around the Piazza. However, there was no line to get into the museum, where many of the treasures were moved after the 1966 flood which devastated the city.

Ellie James, St. John, Stephen Gilbert

The back wall of the museum is a recreation of the Duomo facade as it appeared in the early 1400s. The authentic (original) statues are near eye level, while reproductions appear higher up where those statues would appear. Right above Ellie James is Donatello's St. John the Evangelist, the most famous of the statues appearing on the Duomo, and one of Donatello's earliest works, finished in 1411.

The Florence Campanile or Bell Tower

Right beside the Duomo is the Campanile or Bell Tower.  Our ticket allowed us to climb it, but the wait was more than 30 minutes, and it was just too hot. Across the bottom were two sets of diamond and hexagonal decorative reliefs. The entire collection is now in the museum.

Decorative panels for the Bell Tower.

 

The inside of each panel is backed with enameled tin tiles, a technique which our daughter tells us was developed in Florence. In the lower level of the Bell Tower you can see where additional statutes were placed, four from Donatello. Here is Jeremiah the Prophet, one of the most famous, stored now in the museum.

Donatello's Jeremiah the Prophet

The museum also had one of Donatello's last works, Magdalene Penitent, carved from white poplar, showing an emaciated, draped in hair Mary Magdalene.

Donatello's Magdalene Penitent

In 1401, the cloth makers' guild in Florence held a competition to design a new set of doors for the Baptistery of the Duomo. The two finalists were Lorenzo Ghilberti (must be a relative), and  Filippo Brunelleschi. Ghilberti won, and Bunelleschi went off to Rome to study architecture (where his measurements of the Pantheon became his inspiration for creating the great dome of the Duomo).

Gilbert & Ghilberti's Gates of Paradise

Ghilberti labored for more than fifty years on the two doors, one with scenes found in the New Testament, and the second with scenes from the Old. Michelangelo was so impressed with the doors, that he nicknamed them The Gates of Paradise. The nickname stuck through all of these years. They are currently stored under glass in a nitrogen atmosphere.

Michelangelo's Deposition (the Florentine Pieta)

The Pietà, in the Vatican, is probably Michelangelo's most famous work, after The David. This is his last statue, which he worked on from age 72 to 80. He had no commission, and it was reportedly intended as part of his tomb. He never finished it. 

According to the prototypical art historian, Giorgio Vasari, in a fit of frustration he attempted to destroy the sculpture, and then sold the remains. It was restored by the sculptor Bandini, and his apprentice, to its current state after his death. The figure of Nicodemus, at the top, is said to be a self-portrait of Michelangelo.

The Bargello Museum

Donatello's David 1408

Donatello was 22 in 1408 when he created this version of David. Notice the huge rock in Goliath's forehead.  Next to it, we found Verrocchio's bronze David, created in 1470. Verrocchio was the teacher of Leonardo da Vinci. Supposedly this is modeled on the young Da Vinci

Verrocchio's David

The third, most famous of the Davids, was Donatello's second take, in 1444, which featured the first nude male statue in over 1000 years. I, personally, found it a little creepy but maybe that's just me. 

We also saw Michelangelo's bust of Brutus and his Bacchus here, as well as the original competition designs from Ghilberti and Brunelleschi.

Giambologna's Mercury

Downstairs we finished with Giambologna's Mercury, memorable as the FTD Florist logo, and headed out to try and finish the big four with a visit to the Uffizi Museum.

The Palazzo Vecchio

As you might guess from the subheading, we didn't get into the Uffizi. There is a separate line for card holders, but even that line was about an hour wait, and the heat was stifling. Instead, we went next door to the Palazzo Vecchio, the Town Hall and later residence of the Duke of Medici. The Mayor's office is still there.

Palazzo Vecchio by night

Underneath the Palazzo there are Roman excavations of a bath house and amphitheater.  It was interesting, and there was a short multimedia presentation. It was also cool, literally. Up stairs were different apartments. They weren't furnished, so mostly you were looking at paintings and wallpaper.

On the third floor, in the Sala dei Gigli, or Hall of the Lilies, we saw the restored Donatello statue of Judith and Holofernes, depicting a scene from, according to Wikipedia, the "biblical book of Judith." I couldn't find the scene in my Bible. 

By this time it was 2:00 pm and we were hungry and tired. Ken had to go back to the hotel to work on a paper, so Kathy, Ellie, and I went looking for one of Rick Steve's recommended eateries. The long suffering young ladies bore with me as I went up one alley and down the other, only to finally find the Osteria Vini e Vecchi Sapori which looked like just what we wanted. Unfortunately, they needed reservations.

Ellie James and Kathy at Trattoria Anita.

After a few more tries, we ended up at Trattoria Anita where "brothers Nicola, Gianni and Maurizio offer good value with their weekday lunch special featuring three hearty Tuscan courses... ." Kathy had a large salad, which she wasn't crazy about, while I had the menu del giorno (menu of the day) with spaghetti bolognese, a pork plate, and cauliflower.

Lunch at Trattoria Anita

After lunch we got back to our hotel about 3:30, which was a little late for my pisolino (siesta). Ideally I would like to sleep from 2:00 until 5:00 pm. And I still don't have any trouble falling asleep at night. 

Piazzale Michelangelo

At five we joined a group of about ten, organized by Linda Rourke, to take a bus to the Piazzale Michelangelo, a park on the hill across the Arno River that overlooks the town. 

The views were spectacular. You could clearly see the Duomo, which is hard to see from ground level because the streets are so narrow. The clouds in the sky were fantastic.

Duomo from Piazzale Michelangelo.

About 200 yards uphill, is the Romanesque church of San Miniato. According to the tradition, St. Minias was beheaded for his faith on the banks of the Arno. Like St. Denis in Paris, he picked up his head and walked to the site of this church, where he died and was buried in the first Christian cemetery in Florence. The current church was build in the 1200s to house his remains.

Kathy & Steve at San Miniato, Florence

Every evening, as they've done for a thousand years, the monks' Vespers service features Gregorian chants from the middle ages.

Chanting monks at San Miniato.

By this time, the sun was getting ready to set. Here you can see a portion of the cemetery.

The cemetery at San Miniato

While the rest of the group walked down, Kathy and I caught the bus so we'd have time to have a T-bone steak dinner at Trattoria Dall'Oste, right around the corner from our hotel. It was great.

In the morning, we leave for Austria.

Biking Under the Tuscan Sun

Biking Under the Tuscan Sun

Today we got up early and were at breakfast by 7:30. We signed up for a day trip to the hill town of San Gimignano, a bike ride from there to the to hill town of Monteriggioni and ending with a late lunch in Siena.

We left by 8:00 to meet our tour guide, Piero Didona at the train station by 8:15. Piero runs Bike Florence & Tuscany with his wife Elena, and they have two modern vans with bike racks and a fleet of bikes. They run a number of small day tours in the Tuscany region.

The tour that we signed up for was San Gimignano to Siena for Weekend Riders which certainly describes us. Our tour had two other couples, in addition to Kathy and I.

San Gimignano

One of the 14 remaining towers in San Gimignano.

Our first stop was San Gimignano, the best preserved Tuscan hill town from the middle ages. Wealthy citizens of these towns built tall defensive towers to which they could repair in times of war. When captured, though, all of the losers' defensive towers were destroyed.

In San Gimignano, the black death of 1348 effectively depopulated the city, and so its towers weren't destroyed in war. Today, 14 of the original 75 towers still stand; more than any other town in Italy.

The Tuscan countryside from San Gimignano

We had about an hour to walk through the town (which is incredibly crowded and commercial, even at 9:30 in the increasingly hot and humid morning). We climbed up behind the church, where you could see out over the Tuscan country side, but we didn't linger.

Once out the village, and on a quiet back road, Piero unloaded our bikes and helmets, gave us some instructions, and off we went. Our first stop was a field filled with wild boars, being raised for market.

A Tuscan farm-raised "wild" boar

Initially, the trip was all down hill. We followed the ancient Francigena pilgrim's route that goes from Canterbury, England to Rome.  (Similar to but not as popular as the Way of St. James in northern Spain.) Portions of the road are graveled and portions are paved. Because of the historical significance, the route is protected as a UN Heritage site and can't be developed.

Taking a break in Tuscany

About half-way through the ride to Monteriggioni, we encountered some uphill sections that were really difficult in the heat. I felt faint and a little nauseous; we pushed through the first few hills, but then several of us decided to ride in the air-conditioned comfort for that last, uphill portion of the trip to Monteriggioni.

Monteriggioni

Monteriggioni central square

After leaving San Gimignano, the next stop for pilgrims traveling to Rome was Monteriggioni, a walled city under the protection of nearby Siena. The town's fortifications were so impressive that they rated a mention in Dante's Divine Comedy.

The Monteriggiano Armor Museum

There is a small armor museum and I was able to take a selfie with one of the exhibits out front. There was also a grape arbor in front of the well-preserved cafe, where I nibbled on some grapes.

Picking grapes in Monteriggioni.

The other couples went wine tasting while Kathy and I visited the local gelateria with Piero our guide. Kathy had mango in a cup and I had a cone with melon. The best thing we found, though, was an ancient fountain where we could refill our water bottles.

Filling a water bottle in Monteriggiono

Now refreshed, we loaded up all of the bikes and set out for Siena.

Siena

The Cathedral in Siena

The two big sites to see in Siena are the Cathedral and the main plaza. It's a very hilly town, though, so getting across town involves a lot of climbing. Since it was now 2:30, and we hadn't yet eaten lunch, we decided to break out our Rick Steves guide and look for a recommendation.

Lunch at La Taverna di Cecco

One of his recommendations was to try the picci, a fat spaghetti, and another was to try La Taverna di Cecco, where "grandma Olga cooks and earnest Gianni and Luca serve a menu of traditional Sienese favorites made with fresh ingredients." Kathy had the cheese picci (which was really delicious), and I had the mushroom. I wasn't brave enough to try the wild boar.

During lunch, Kathy's phone rang. It was our granddaughter Finnley on FaceTime saying, "Grandma, can you come home now?" It was wonderful to hear from her, as well as our daughter-in-law Mari-kristin.

Preparing for the second Palio on August 16.

Having spent most of our two-hours free time in Siena enjoying an Italian lunch, we didn't have a lot of time to visit the central square. By the time we did get there, we found the square fenced off and the dirt track being prepared for the upcoming Palio horse race, a tradition that has run every year for the last 800 years, war or peace or black plague.

We won't be here on the 16th, nor would I think about spending a day in the blazing sun to watch some horses race. However, it is supposed to be very exciting. Here's a picture from Wikipedia.

Back to Florence

The ride back to Florence was in air-conditioned comfort. Almost all of us dozed for a bit. When we got back at 5:30 we stopped for another gelato around the corner, and picked up some snacks at the Carefour Express. Kathy made some coffee, we nibbled, she face-timed her folks and now it's time to turn in. Talk to you tomorrow.

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.