So we’ve made it to Florence successfully. Boarded the train in zurich around 2130 and found our sleeping compartment right away. It was a tiny room, maybe five feet wide by six or seven feet long, just enough for a bed (and up to two pull-down/out beds from the wall) and space to stand next to the bed with a little sink closet in the corner by the window. We watched the “Tuscany” episode of No Reservations then went to bed. Jeremy’s iPhone notified him around 0130 that we had crossed the border into Italy and we both woke up and watched out the window for a bit. You could see the outlines of some pretty big mountains along the horizon which was cool, bet it is gorgeous in the daylight. We went back to sleep until 0600 then got up and pulled our stuff together, enjoyed a nice cappuchino (or rather I enjoyed two, since jeremy doesn’t drink coffee) and pastry, and waited (and waited) for the train to pull into the station. We were supposed to arrive at 0640, we ended up getting off around 0720.
We made our way out of the train station and after realizing we arrived in the other, non-central train station (google maps was very wrong) we spent a few minutes orienting ourselves and checking and rechecking where we were going along the way we finally found our hotel (johanna 1) after passing it twice (the gps I brought from home is very slow to get online here so we ended up wandering the old-fashioned way).
It’s about 0935 now and we’re off to meet up with my college friend Lauren at the Duomo.
(1900)
So we’ve managed to cover quite a bit if ground today, literally. Met up with lauren at the duomo and joined the line to go inside. It is actually an interesting paradox that the outside is so gorgeous and ornate but when you get inside it almost seems rather plain. We took a few shots inside then walked over the Ponte Vecchio to the other side of the river where, after a good bit of wandering we sat down to lunch at Cafe Ricchi. I had a radicchio risotto, it was tasty, definitely not a flavor I’ve had before, kind of bitter, but that was cut by the creamy nature of the risotto. We of course had a half liter of the house chianti and a carafe of bubbly water as well. Afterwards we tried to go to the Boboli fortress (next to the Boboli gardens but no admission fee) which promised a good view of the city (and hopefully was less crowded than the standard tour stop of the Plaza Leonardo). After quite a hike up to the fortress we determined all the gates were closed so, hoping we would just stay at the same elevation and not have to up down the huge hill and up again, we went over to the other overlook, no luck though we still had to go downhill then up at least 150 stairs, but the view was worth it and we figured since we’d reached the to we deserved a cup of gelato as reward, I had fior di latte, essentially vanilla, which was really good and hit the spot nicely. After taking some nice panoramic shots we decided to break for an afternoon nap and meet up at 1930 at the central train station to find dinner, off we go.
(2220)
Back from dinner. We met up with lauren at the station and made our way to a place lauren’s book recommended, but once we got there it looked a bit deserted so we backtracked to a place we’d noticed on the way there. Got there right in time (around 1945) and got a table outside in the little square right before people had to start waiting for tables. Ordered a half liter of the house red (this one was spicier and smoother than the one we had for lunch), I had a fettuchini pasta with porchini mushrooms, lauren had spagettini (spelling may not be right on that), a long s-shaped pasta with pesto and jeremy had veal ossobuco (very tasty). After dinner we went to one of the gelatarias recommended by laurens guidebook, lauren and jeremy each had a very tart lemon sorbet I had a really good pistachio gelato, which we enjoyed sitting on the steps of the illuminated duomo. There were 3 Americans sitting to one side of us, two were alternating playing a bongo drum and the other had what looked like fire-juggling sticks that he was adding lighting fluid to. We thought we were going to have a very interesting spectacle in front on the duomo but the local police came by and had them pack up and leave before they started anything.
Since the line was crazy long this morning we decided to meet early tomorrow to go up to the dome of the duomo. It opens at 0830, we are going to meet at 0815, so hopefully we won’t have to wait what looked like hours that people did today at 1000. Until tomorrow, ciao!