Florence Italy (David and Chianti)

 11 June 2024 - Florence Italy (David and Chianti)

The second week in Florence, we continued to explore the streets and alleys, visiting churches, museums, and sampling local foods and wines. We also took a day trip out into Tuscany.  Spent two days trekking back and forth to the train station to finalize the tickets for our trip from Milan to London.  Not speaking the language is a real detriment, even with apps like Papago and Google translate available. One huge highlight of the week was the Academia and its main attraction, David.  There is a replica of David positioned outside the entrance to the Palazzo Vecchio (the town hall) which we have passed by several times since the plaza is just behind the hotel.  The original stood there for hundreds of years until it was moved to the Academia. Almost all the sculptures on view in the city (and there are a lot) are replicas.  The originals are in museums to protect them from the environment.

Russ caught a beautiful view of Ponte Vecchio on a cloudy day.

While not the oldest pharmacy in Florence (that one is in another area of town), this one started in 1561.

Local business owners use interesting means of transportation to bring products to their businesses.

We have really enjoyed Florentine food.  Steak is especially good and the salads are interesting.

We took a food and wine tour of Florence.  The guide started us off at this restaurant with appetizers of cured meats, cheeses, chicken liver pate and a delicious wine.  Russ reported that his Coke Zero was excellent.

Then she led us through the tiny roads to our second restaurant, which is actually on top of what used to be a Roman amphitheater.  In the basement, where the wines are kept, you can see remains of the original structure.

We sampled pasta with boar sauce, pasta with rabbit and spinach ravioli with Parmesan sauce. Pretty adventurous for us.  Boar is common in Tuscany. There are a lot of wild boar and the populations need to be controlled.

We had such a great time sharing a meal with our guide.  We talked about all sorts of topics and she educated us on the history of Florence and the food experience.

One of the three wines I got to taste.

And, of course, there is always room for gelato! My favorite combo is dark chocolate and pistachio.  This is one of the more popular gelato stores in Florence with a lot of flavor choices and very fresh gelato.

One day, we wandered into a paper store.  A very personable young man, Lorenzo, demonstrated how Florentine printed paper is made using acrylic paints and a gel-like liquid.  He told us that the paper needed to dry awhile, but if we came back the next day, he would have it ready to gift us.  So thoughtful! Hopefully I can get it home without crushing it.

Finally, the Neptune fountain on the corner of Palazzo Vecchio is working.  All the sculptures Cosimo placed in front of the Town Hall have commanding, assertive poses. He wanted to sent the message to Rome that he was powerful and meant business.

The Accademia is one of the most popular tourist spots in Florence (because of David) and it isn’t that large.  Hence, there are timed entrances with LONG lines outside.  Fortunately, that means the crowds inside aren’t as ridiculous as they are at the Vatican Museums.

The artwork in the Accademia is excellent!

Botticelli’s Virgin and Child with the Young St. John the Baptist and Two Angels.

Two of the small rooms held ancient instruments.  This is a Saltorio (which we would call a hammered dulcimer) and it is made of stone. It is playable, but I am not sure of the sound it would make.

An original Stradivarius violin with all original parts from 1716. It is the only one in the world. 

Lovely hurdy-gurdies from the 1700s.

I have no idea what this is!

Rape of a Sabine Woman. The replica is outside the Palazzo Vecchio.

Pieta generally attributed to Michelangelo, through there is debate between experts.  The marble is reused from a previous project and appears, to me, to be incomplete.

And, of course, David.

I never realized that his outsized hand was holding the stone that he would use in his sling.

On one of our treks back and forth to the train station, we stopped at the Basilica Santa Maria Novella.  It is the first basilica established in Florence (1400s) and is run by the Dominicans. It is one of the most important Gothic style buildings in Tuscany. It was here that the Church condemned Galileo for his teachings about the Sun being the center of the solar system.

The church has several important artworks from the Gothic and early Renaissance period.

Our day trip into Tuscany took us through the Chianti area.  We have seen this rooster at several shops and restaurants in Florence.  It is a branding of the products coming from the Chianti region.

Saw several small towns like this one, some with a tower or two.  Wealthy families built these towers as protection against aggressors.  They could climb up into the tower (door was usually very high up and access was via ladder), and stay for a few days to allow the marauders to pass.

We stopped in Radda, one of the small hilltop towns, for a little walk around.

Beautiful views from the hilltop.  Everything was so green.  

It felt like we were in Napa or Sonoma county, what with all the vineyards. 

Lovely country roads with very little traffic.

Some of the large homes have been turned into hotels and spa resorts.

We saw this rooster everywhere!

Ate a lovely lunch at a small restaurant in Castellina in Chianti.  I had roast beef and Russ had roast veal.  Both were delicious.

We took a little walk around the town.  Central road with local people shopping and visiting with each other.

Local church open for business.

This is an underground passage between the city walls and inside buildings.  

One of the small businesses in this underground corridor was a weaver using a wooden loom.

Monteriggioni is a heavily walled medieval hilltop town.  It played a significant role during the many, many battles between Florence and Siena during the Middle Ages.

San Gimignano, another medieval hilltop town in Tuscany, is known for its many towers.  

The crowds were huge and I was enjoying our foray out into areas with fewer people, so we decided not to stop (no parking spaces anyway).

On the way back to our hotel, we stopped at Michelangelo’s Plaza, which gave us a beautiful panoramic view of Florence. The Duomo, its bell tower, and Palazzo Vecchio stand out for their height.

Our guide told us it is difficult to get roofs replaced or repaired because you are required to reuse used tiles from elsewhere or buy ones with the same color and shape.  The roof color and building colors are emblematic of Florence. You really get a sense of the size of the Duomo from this picture.