A Good Day

I woke up early this morning (4:00) to check on World Series Game 1.  Unfortunately, the Rangers were losing in the 7th.  I stuck around until it was out of reach in the 8th and went back to bed.

Shortly after I woke up this morning, I had to move to a smaller room in the house because the owner had overbooked.  My new room is, I am affectionately calling it, a cell.  It is also the farthest room from the kitchen where the WiFi is, so I have little to no signal there.  Hence, I am now doing my interneting from the kitchen area and making everyone else listen to my conversation with my fam on Skype!

After that, I was able to go to Confession with an English-speaking priest at the Duomo.  It was nice, because I was able to see another part of the Duomo that most tourist do not get to see since it is blocked off from them.  I did not take pictures, however, because I felt that would be inappropriate.

I then headed out to see the rest of the Florence sights south of the Arno.  This started with the Pitti Palace, which was at different times a home for the Medicis, the Hapsburgs (yes, of Austria), Napoleon, and the first king of unified Italy since Florence was the first capital.  It is now both preserved as the palace as well as an art museum, costume museum, porcelein museum, and entrance to the immense Boboli Gardens.  Unfortunately once again there were no photos allowed inside, but I took plenty in the gardens.  The exterior of the palace, while obviously huge, is also intentionally downplayed to "hide" the treasures inside.

When I made my way into the museum/palace, I happened upon a special tour of the king's apartment and bathrooms usually closed to the public, so I of course came along.  The tour guide was a nice 20-something guy who apologized for not speaking English well enough, though we did not have any problems.  I was joined by a couple from Manchester, England, the husband was originally from Scottish and still had a nice brogue.  The king's apartment was impressive, but I really marveled at the separate baths for king and queen (hers was huge, the lady on the tour with me rightly remarked it was like a jacuzzi).  Moving on, the palace/art gallery is amazing and varied.  Our tour guide had pointed out that, unlike most museums that have rooms dedicated to a period, this was preserved as they inhabitants had had it so 16th century paintings were next to 17th century furniture and 18th century walls.  Perhaps most impressive were the huge murals on the ceilings of the Medici rooms, each dedicated to a Roman god personified by the Medicis themselves.

The other exhibits were not particularly interesting to me, though I did think it was interesting that they had on display the burial garments of one Medici couple (a long story as to how they got them).  They were historically important because they are some of the few remaining garments from their time period.

I then moved out into the Boboli Gardens, which begin with a large fountain then move up a steep hill to a giant Neptune (I think) statue which affords an amazing view of Florence.  I also walked over to the Bardini Gardens, but they were much smaller and not nearly as impressive.  Unfortunately the Forte di Belvedere, which had commanded the eastern approach to Florence, has been closed for a few years so I was not able to see inside that.  Apparently at a certain spot numerous animals had died, and after a girl fell to her death the populace was in an uproar until the town was forced to shut down the entire fort until something can be done to fix the situation.

After making my way back to the entrance of the Pitti Palace (I had been there over 3 hours, so imagine the last few paragraphs taking much longer than I typed), I decided to move on to see the Piazzale Michelangelo and San Miniato Church.  On the way, I did stop in a small bakery and had a pastry with sugar coating and chocolate filling, somewhat like a donut though much better than any I had had before (my apologies to Dunkin' Donuts and the Triple Chocolate Imperial in Quebec).

On the map, it looked like a rather short walk.  In truth, it was anything but.  To get there, you have to walk up a hill/mountain on an almost straight up grade until you have about passed out.  Then, you get to walk up some more steep steps to the church/still working monastery.  It, however, was worth it.  From the outside, it looks almost like a mini Santa Maria Novella.  The inside is quite small, but filled with beautiful but simple artwork.  It must have been something for the Benedictine monks who originally lived there, on top of a hill away from the rest of the city.

More recently, the grounds have been filled with the tombs and crypts of some of the wealthiest families of Florence.  This only started in the late 19th century, so many of those buried here still have close family nearby, and therefore many had fresh memorials.  These tombs and crypts are absolutely remarkable, I could not help but take pictures of some of them.  I really wish I could share all of them, because the artwork rivals that in the museums.  One that struck me was two life-size statues of a man in uniform and his wife, standing like they are greeting each other.  I noted that she died in 1942 and he in 1944, both in their 20s, so I can only assume because of the war (you can see them on the right side of the picture).

I made my way over to the Piazza Michelangelo, which other than the view of Florence was a pretty big dud for me.  So I made my way back down the hill, thinking about catching dinner at one of the restaurants on the south side of the river.  When I reached the one Rick Steves had told me to eat at, I noticed that the menu had upped in price considerably since his writing.  I decided to head back to the house and rest my feet for a few minutes before catching dinner nearby.

I was going to go back to the first restaurant I had stopped at my first night, but I lost patience waiting for it to open.  Instead, I ventured toward the Piazza di Republica.  I was escorted into a restaurant there with an outsiding eating area but heaters since it was getting cooler.  I say escorted because they have a hustler working outside the restaurant urging passersby to eat there instead of the restaurant next door (I was going to eat there anyways because I had seen the menu, but I still thought it was funny).  I had a rather large dinner, deciding to splurge a little for my birthday dinner.  I started with a salad of shrimp, ham, and avocadoes on greens and tomatoes.  Next came my main course, pasta with sausage and tomato sauce.  I also had to have some cake, so I had a piece of cream cake with a chocolate frosting.  I should add that I had a delicious glass of the house chianti with my meal.  It was a good feast.

When I made it back to the house, I was happy to be able to talk to Mom (again) and Dad for over an hour, perhaps the last time I will be able to for a few days.  Overall, it was a very good, if tiring, birthday.  Thank you to everyone who remembered me!