Firenze two: Palazzo Vecchio, Pitti Palace, and Boboli Gardens

We had sort of a disastrous night as a family - Sebastian napped from 1 to 3 am; Steve napped from 12 to 2; Liesl slept from 1-6; I was awake for a while in the middle. It turns out that asking our family - our young children - to go without a night of sleep and then adjust body clocks 9 hours ahead is a challenging experience. Who knew?! I was perhaps overly optimistic about how it would go; it's definitely a little hard when you feel your two-week vacation clock ticking. But what can you do? We are persevering through as best we can. (The other thing that's a bummer? It's vacation time in Italy and many of the restaurants and shops are closed - again, we knew it would be the case, but it's really disappointing to see closed signs when you're hoping for food, and it's making my intrepid researching husband a little crazy.) On the other hand, we have had wonderful weather - cool and breezy, in the 80s, instead of 100 degrees and humid as is common in Italy this month. And we have lucked into excellent food at all the restaurants we've tried, even though they've been somewhat randomly selected.

So Wednesday morning, after breakfast, Steve and Seb hoped to grab a quick nap. Liesl and I decided to start the day with an adventure, so we hopped on the bus and went into town. First stop, cappuccino and bombolino! Second, the Palazzo Vecchio, the town hall that has housed both government officials and local aristocrats. Liesl was thrilled by the idea of a palace - by walking in a palace - and we were able to see some fine sculptures and paintings as we walked around. For me, the highlight was climbing up to the top of the tower - amazing views of the city and Duomo, and a true sense of being in a castle, complete with watchtowers, a bell, an open-air circuit with turrets, etc. We were both thrilled.

The map room with collected maps of the known world, as currently known - fascinating!
And once again up the stairs - this time, 223 stairs to the top of the tower.

You could circumnavigate the tower once you were halfway up; I don't know the proper term for it, but it was an open-air hallway, with giant windows (barred over) and smaller windows (for fighting?), and entirely open spots in the ground (glassed over). The breeze was tremendous.

 Us, with the Duomo behind us!

We went down and met up with Steve and Sebastian, got more cappuccino and croissants, and then took a few turns on the very old carousel in the Piazza della Repubblica. We wandered the streets, eating porchetta and prosciutto with mozzarella sandwiches for lunch, and then the other three needed to go home and sleep. So off they went, and I stayed in the historic area to explore more. (All three slept for a few hours, phew!)

 I started off by wandering the Oltrarno, seeing the church of San Spirito

Next up, I passed by and noticed a crazy-looking special exhibit in the Palazzo Strozzi, purporting to combine art and science. These are two giant, people-size slides, from top to bottom. You buy a ticket and get to come down; I wished the kids were with me because they would have loved it, but decided not to do it by myself.

Next up, the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore, the museum of the Duomo, where some of the sculptures and art that formerly adorned the cathedral are now displayed. The original doors of the church, designed by Ghiberti and gilded bright gold, are on view and are magnificent.

This was one of Michelangelo's final works, a pieta intended for his own tomb. He never finished it; the marble had defects and he became frustrated, but it was completed by an apprentice.

Sculptures by Donatello that formerly adorned the inside of the cathedral.

I was tired after all this, and needed my third cappuccino of the day, this one in the form of an affogato with chocolate gelato. And then I went to meet up with the family at yet another gelato shop... it's possible we're overdoing it.

We headed over to the Pitti Palace, home to various Medicis, and the attached Boboli Gardens. We toured the ornate rooms of the palace, playing various games to keep up the kids' interest in the paintings and sculptures (first one to find a painting of Mary and baby Jesus in every room wins! Who is the scariest looking person in this room's set of paintings? Spot the puppy!).

The throne! Very fun to see a real throne.

This was Liesl's favorite - a queen's bedroom! Sebastian liked that the rooms were color-coordinated; each one a different color, each room with all the furniture and wall decorations in the right color. After an hour in the palace we went outside, through the central courtyard, and into the Boboli Gardens.

Poor Sebastian was really struggling to wake up and participate - we had to drag him out of bed from his nap.

The gardens are extensive, with many manicured pathways and rows of trees and ornamental fountains. We enjoyed being in nature after a few days of city touring -

It's an egg! It's an alien life form!

 The palace, with the Vecchio tower (above) and Duomo (below) in the background.

And on our way out the exit, we saw this: Sebastian's favorite statue so far. A fat man on a turtle.  At least the water came out of the turtle's mouth and not the dude's private bits.

And then to dinner at Bistro 3 Tavolo, a tiny place that I spotted on our first night in a small side street in the Oltrarno. From the street, you went down a narrow hallway into a small cavern-like space; a single server and chef took care of everything. The food was delicious; our server was lovely; my rose wine was divine. So good.

Firenze: the Duomo, Oltrarno, and Piazzale Michelangelo

We woke up to pouring rain and a thunderstorm, very unexpected. (At least, some of us slept -- Liesl and Steve were awake for good by 2 am.) But today was our day to climb up to the top of the Duomo - timed reservations are required in advance and can't be modified, and ours was for today at 8:30 am. So off we went, catching the #6 bus outside our apartment to get over to the historic area. Fortunately the rain and thunder stopped by the time we arrived and we lucked into a cool, breezy morning.

We climbed up and up the Duomo steps, winding our way up the narrow steep stairs to the top - what a view!

After we descended the stairs and came out, we wandered all of the streets around the area, peeking into stores, drinking coffee, eating gelato, marveling at the architecture and the narrow alleys. But then everyone started to feel tired again - the kids in particular were dragging their feet - so back to our apartment we came. Everyone napped for hours.

Ponte Vecchio over the Arno, lined with watchsellers.

cool-looking doors and door-knobs

In the late afternoon, Sebastian and I went out exploring in the Oltrarno shops -- peeking into paper-making places, ceramic shops, toy stores, jewelry, shoes --  and then Steve and Liesl caught up with us. Before dinner, we went up to the Piazzale Michelangelo, to see the sun setting over Florence, which was gorgeous and amazing and quite possibly our favorite thing so far.

 The Pitti Palace - we will re-visit it tomorrow and go inside.

 The doors! The doors are so cool.

 

On another, entirely different note, the apartment has a bidet. The children were horrified/ flabbergasted/ curious, and some tentative experimentation was undertaken (accompanied by much squealing). Ahh, the joys of foreign discoveries.

flight to Florence!

Our much-anticipated, eagerly awaited vacation to Italy has begun! We have arrived in Florence!

 

We finished packing and running errands yesterday, and on Sunday morning did the final house-cleaning. We have a lovely PSU student house- and dog-sitting for us, and so we wanted to leave the place in reasonable shape for her and for our return. The kids took Jasper for a long run/walk, probably 3-4 miles along the neighborhood trails, which was terrific for both him and them.

The first flight, direct from PDX to Amsterdam, was delightful in the beginning and hard at the end -- the kids are always happy with the unlimited screen time and multiple movie, tv, and video game options on board. But no one slept much, if at all. Liesl became ill towards the end of the flight and then threw up immediately after deplaning in Amsterdam. She continued to throw up into a baggie while walking (at a forced march pace because we had only an hour-long connection) through the airport, while waiting to clear customs, and then on the next flight. It was really sad and we are a little worried, but I have to say she was an amazing trooper and kept going. 

It was beautiful to fly over the Alps and northern Italy - Steve and I were thrilled to see the landscape below us. We took a taxi to our VRBO and unpacked a little, and then everyone fell asleep. The place is old and a little spartan, but it should be fine for a few days as long as the faint smoke smell dissipates. We slept a few hours, and then went out to find some food and explore a little of the city.

 Very cool door locks with giant keys, and knobs in the middle of the door!

We hopped on the tram which runs a few blocks from here and it took us across the Arno river and to the train station in the center of touristy Florence. We wandered a bit, confused by the masses of tourists and absence of charm, and then decided to eat our first gelato of the trip... it was a necessary sop and bribe to tired and droopy children! And their tired mama. Refreshed, we headed back across the Arno to the Oltrarno neighborhood, and there found the narrow cobble-stoned streets and tiny restaurants we were expecting. We ate some very tasty pizzas for dinner at a place called Fermento 1889 and then strolled along Via Pisarna all the way back to our apartment.