Greve by Heat of the Day, Florence by Night

After lunch, Liz and the girls decided they wanted to go to Greve so off we went. I felt confident the second time around especially with my navigator back in the passenger seat. Once again we parked in the first lot we found and walked in the direction of the city centre.

It was hot and sticky. If I had been by myself, I probably would have turned around after the first block.  But we continued further and happily we found a little piazza filled with shops. Because it was in the heat of the day, there weren't too many people around. After the crowds of Sienna, Florence and Piazza it felt good to walk about without throngs of tourists.

While Greve would never be on my list of places to visit, I still enjoyed it more than Pisa. As we were driving back from Greve, Acki asked if we could go back to Florence so we could see the Ponte Vecchio at night. My heart jumped at the idea. Why hadn't I thought of it myself? The idea was so much more appealing than spending a long evening at the villa even if we (I) needed the rest.

We drove back to the Villa to rest up and then made our last familiar jaunt towards Florence. As we drove down the winding road, I pulled the car off into the vineyard at the bottom of the hill just as I had been dreaming of doing since we first arrived for a few pictures.

I must admit I was a bit nervous at first, wondering if the policia would come and take us away for trespassing.

But no one came. I'm so glad we took the chance. I wish we would have done it more than once. I wish I would have taken more pictures. If I had it to do over again, I would have.

Once again, we parked at the little parking lot that had become a second home for our car and walked to the city. No longer wide-eyed tourists, we were still filled with excitement.

Somehow this trip felt different. Perhaps it's because we knew this would be our last trip to Florence.

Perhaps it was the familiarity we felt with Florence now and we were about to see it in a new light.

Whatever it was, we were not disappointed.

Without any agenda on our minds, we were free to go where our hearts and feet took us. Florence was beautiful bathed in the falling sunlight.

And in the cover of nightfall, the streets took a different feel. We ended up in the piazza drinking coffee in an overpriced cafe. It was the best night of the trip.

We didn't get back to the villa under almost 11pm. With an early morning ahead of us, we packed up and fell into bed happily exhausted looking forward to the promise of Venice.

Back to Florence

In part because we loved Florence so much and in part because after what we experienced in Pisa we felt tentative about heading to the unknown, we decided another day trip to Florence was in order.

Our drive was uneventful and it was good to head out as though we lived there forever. It was just what the doctor ordered. Since the girls missed out on climbing to the very top of the Duomo and Liz wanted to go inside the Cathedral, we started off there first. While they did this, I wandered about the area by myself, taking pictures to my heart's content.

The fashion in Italy, especially Florence was lovely. A girl could go broke!

The bell on this bike caught my fancy so I came in close for a shot. 

As I was walking away, this gentleman walked up to the bike and asked me laughingly in an Italian English accent, if I liked his bike. I laughed, why, yes, I did and as I walked away, I turned back and got a shot of him. Wished I had taken it from the front. He was quite dapper.

The green and red here caught my eye.

And even more bikes.

A self portrait as I window shopped.

We decided to check out the Ufizzi because we wanted to see Michelangelo's David. There was a line to get into the museum, but we felt the David would be worth the wait. While there, I ended up talking to two American women, sharing our experience. I must admit, it was a little fun hearing the admiration in their voice when I told them that we had rented a villa...in Tuscany...and I was driving us around the country.

I might know how to get to Florence, but I didn't know that the David is not housed at the Ufizzi so we were a bit disappointed after we finally got into the museum. The art work was beautiful, but we weren't allowed to take pictures like we were in the Louvre. Boo!!

However, we did make our way to the cafe area of the museum and found a lovely rooftop area where we could get some more pictures in.

By the time we finished exploring the museum, we were happy, but tired. We stopped to rest our feet and fill our stomachs with gelato on the Ponte Vecchio before we made the hike back to our car.

What a huge difference it was walking back to our car when we knew exactly where it was. Even though we were tired and it was about a 20 minute walk to the car, it was a lighthearted, happy walk back.

Made a little longer as we stopped for even more pictures along the way :)

Fab Florence Part Due

After climbing the Duomo, the gelato was wearing off and we were ready for lunch. Around the Cathedral were various restaurants, a few which obviously catered to Americans. I'm ashamed to admit that we selected one of these, but I felt it was important to get a meal that Brie would eat.

There were chicken sandwiches, hamburgers, even cheese sticks on the menu. It was as American as you could get. And it was surprisingly good. Reenergized, we headed back to the Piazza della Repubblica for a spin on the carousel.

I can never turn down a carousel ride.

Luckily for me, Acki was game or I may not have gotten Liz and Brie on it.

By this time, evening was drawing near and we weren't sure what we wanted to do next. I read that one of the museums had The David by Michelangelo which was on my list of things to see so we wandered in the direction of the Palazzo Vecchio. Similar to the walk to the Duomo, there were countless stops along the way.

Did I say, countless?

We were like children in an ice cream factory.

I was beginning to think we were never going to get there.

When we finally came to the square.

It did not disappoint.

It was a wonderful experience. The wind strangely kicked up and I felt like I was living in a story book. I loved, loved, loved Florence. More than I would have imagined.

We knew we had a bit of a hike back to the car so we headed back as the sun was coming down which was already after 8pm. By the time we arrived back to the villa, we were tired, but happy and ready for our next adventure.

Fabulous Florence

After a simple, but delicious breakfast, we were ready to get going. Our choices were simple, we could either take it easy for the day and explore the countryside of Tuscany or we could dig right in and head for Florence. I held my breath as I gave everyone the two options. I was ready to rock and roll, but I had originally agreed that since this was our vacation, I would be fine with taking it easy. Now that we were here, I wanted to make the most of it.

I was happy when Acki spoke up, voting for going to Florence. Although I was a bit nervous about driving to a new place, I was encouraged by the events of the morning which gave me all the confidence I needed to feel like I could do it. As the girls finished getting ready, Liz and I went to the reception office to ask for directions.

We were provided a print out of step by steps instructions which seemed easy, but had enough vagueness to them, such as "you'll come to a row of gas stations, turn left on the second light after you pass the gas stations. that I was more than a little unsettled. I mean, what can be considered a "row" of gas stations?

Turns out these were the best directions we had for the whole trip. Before we knew it, we were arriving at the vicinity of the city and heading into a parking lot. It was rather a strange parking lot, just one long narrow strip of parking spaces, all of which were taken. The ones that weren't appeared to be reserved so we kept driving up the one way path. Finally we came upon a few empty spaces and grabbed one of them.

We began to walk in the direction of which we believed the heart of the city would be located. I don't know why we were relatively confident we were walking in the right direction when we had never been there before, but we were having fun taking pictures of our surroundings along the way.

It took us much longer to find the city centre than it should have mostly because we kept stopping to take it all in and to document it all with our cameras.

It's a funny experience asking for directions in northern Italy. Most of the Italians act as though they've never heard of the places for which you're looking. Perhaps they refer to their landmarks differently, but we managed to find the Arno River without too much trouble. Here, we were just a hop, skip and a jump from the sights we wanted to see.

Once we got to this area, the scenery changed. It was a bustling little city with a lot of signage which was helpful to four woman from the US who hadn't a clue as to what we were doing.

First up, was a stop for gelato, after all, it was after noon by the time we had arrived and it was time to reward ourselves for making it this far.

After our tummies were filled with our first taste of genuine, authentic Italian gelato, we continued to walked to the Duomo. Like our walk to the city centre, our journey was interrupted by stops along the way.

There were countless souvenir stands.

Photo opportunities around every corner.

And at the Piazza della Repubblica sat a carousel calling to the child in me.

But none of that compared to the first moment I set my eyes upon the Florence Cathedral. It was truly a magical moment stepping into the area in which the Duomo sat. The moment my eyes came upon it, I stopped in my steps and literally gasped at its beauty.

The facade was whiter than I imagined and was a stark contrast to the beige buildings that surrounded it. And somehow it's hidden from sight so that when you come upon it, it takes you by surprise.

Which is impossible to imagine because the cathedral is quite large. It's surrounded by ordinary buildings, which I thought were mainly apartments, which added to its grandeur.

Could you imagine looking out your window every morning to this view?

I wondered if those who live in this city realized how special it is and how lucky they are.

We decided to throw caution to the wind and attempt to climb the Duomo.

I had read that the lines could be several hours long, but after less than 30 minutes, we were entering the building to begin our ascent.

The climb up was quite a work out. It's the type of steps that I hate with a passion. Steep, endless, often without any handrail. I kept my head down, concentrating on one step at a time, telling myself if I could climb to the top of the Notre Dame, surely I could climb to the top of this Duomo. My steps were slow and I told the girls to go ahead and not to wait for me. 

I don't know why I let my fear creep in, but it did. And at the very last section, I gave in to the pesky enemy. Here was the extent of my view as I waited for Liz to finish the climb and tell the girls I chickened out.

I felt it apropos that the window had bars making me feel like a prisoner to my fears as I watched others pass me up without a care in the world.

After waiting for what seemed like hours, I finally saw Liz coming down the stairs from top. 

Liz was beaming as she told me that it was just a beautiful as one would have thought. The only thing was, the girls were nowhere to be found which was a little alarming being as I found it difficult to believe they could have passed me by without me knowing it. 

The descent was double nerve-wracking for me as going down steps is even more frightening to me as going up. Added to that, was my concern about the girls. When we finally reached the last step and walked out into the fresh air, I was anxious to see their faces. But they were nowhere in sight. Scenes from Taken flashed my mind. Acki's mom would take me down and I wouldn't blame her a bit. 

Just about the time I thought I was going to start crying, the girls walked up full of smiles. They had been waiting for what seemed like forever so they did a little shopping. Turns out they didn't go all the way to the top, somehow missing the last passage. They were exceedingly disappointed when they realized what they had missed, but I told them they could try again if we decided to come back to Florence another day.