Sunday 22 February 2015

2015 February 21 Firenze


I was  PICK POCKETTED in Flrenze ( Florence) !!!!! First time ever in more than 40 years of travel!!

If it's Saturday , it must be Firenze. We departed Termini Station on the 0920 train to Firenze.





It took 11/2 hrs; and the train was doing on average 240 /245  per hour. It was a very smooth journey. We passed through a number of tunnels as we went through the Appenines. 


As we arrived at our destination, it had commenced raining. It was forecasted but luckily for us it stopped quickly. 

We repaired to the Tourist Information office, just to the left of the terminal,  and got a very useful map of the city. The tourist official said that the city was walkable which indeed it was. 

We repaired first to the famous cathedral, down  Piazza dell  Unita dItalia, 


down Via de Panzani over Via Ceretani and into Piazza Duomo. 



There was a small queue but we entered the cathedral within minutes. It was spectacular. 




The nearby Museo was closed for renovations and will be close til the Autumn. 




You can climb to the top of the above 414 steps and no lift so as my PC was still 'under the weather', we declined the view. 

It was lunchtime, so we repaired to a small Trattoria on a side street. It was obviously a popular local haunt but the owner assured us that we would we seated in 5 minutes. PC had a dish similar to Boeuf Bourginon and I had the usual Totellini. The only wine was Vino de la Casa and though white was on the list, everyone appeared to be drinking a half carafe of red wine, so we went native. We concluded lunch with a chocolate tart for me - delicious and a homemade, and Tiramisu for PC . Two expressos completed a very enjoyable meal. 

We continued our tour to see the Chapelle Medici, a spectacular church, ensure  you arrive no later than 1320 or you will not be admitted. 







As one enters:








which houses the tombs of the Medicis, sculpted by Michelangelo, and two of his drawings; unfortunately, before completion as he repaired to Rome to work for the Pope. 

From there, we went to palazzo Medici Ricardo with its chapel, vestibule - a mini version of the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles and no less  lavish   




We proceeded to Ponte Vecchio


passed 

another Medici palace, now the Town Hall and on to Ponte Vecchio, on the Arno, reminiscent of the Rialto bridge in Venezia (Venice) 


We decided to go back to the railway station and see if we could take an earlier  train back to Roma. We had booked on the 2020 and it was now 1900. I had the train E ticket on my mobile and earlier in the day, I had written details on a sheet of paper in case I ran out of charge. However, as I had not got the booking reference written down, they couldn't help us. Both ticket checkers were so  apologetic. Then I saw that one of the ticket checker had his I phone 5 on charge, so I asked him if I could use it ? He agreed. As the phone was dead, it took a few minutes to charge up, I gave him the reference. He quickly stuffed  two tickets into our hands and told us to run and that the staff on the train would find us seats . Running down the platform, we jumped on, just as the official was about to close the door. Having secured the door,  he told us we could sit in any vacant seats,  as the train would not be stopping again until it reached Rome. We wouldn't have made it except for the fact that it was running 5 minutes late but the later train we are supposed to take was running an hour late so thankfully we arrived in Roma at 2100 instead of 2200 and as that train was delayed the ETA was 2300

It was a relief, as I had been feeling cold all day. We arrived back at the hotel and decided to call it a day. The lunch was so good, and I suspect the fact that the two of us were not up to par, we didn't feel hungry and so we repaired to our room. 








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