Firenze!!!
We left sweltering Athens early in the morning for our Flight to Milan. Travel tip. Schedule your flights VERY early in the morning. Why? You miss traffic in the metro areas, and you get where you are going in a way that does not burn an entire day as a travel day. Cost: An hour or two of sleep in the morning. Hey, if my kids can get up at 5:30 in the morning so can you. And they haven't even drunk any wine or beer the night before.
We land in Milan, and pick up our minivan. Travel tip #2: There are services by both Renault and Peugeot that allow one to do a short term lease of a brand new vehicle for a cost at or less than a comparative rental car. So we land in Milan, a guy who did not speak a word of English runs us through the documentation for our new car, not a word of which as in English (toute en Francais), and off we went, on our way to Florence. We had maps, we had a GPS in the Car (voiture, as the GPS was all in French, with no way to enable an English User Interface), but my wife and I still apologized to each other the night before in advance of the huge arguments that always ensue when we get lost in busy European cities. We also prepped the kids that it would be ugly. Actually the majority of the drive from Milan to Florence was great. It only got ugly when we missed our exit, and ended up lost in Florence in rush hour. And we know how tolerant Italian drivers are to French plated minivans in their city. It was not fun, but we got there intact. Intact physically, anyways. Our hotel was a stones throw from the Ponte Vecchio, which is a classic Florence locale. A very wide bridge spanning the River Arno, it is covered with shops. The shops used to be butcher shops, until the powers that be decided that the bridge should be covered in Jewelry stores. That was in the 1600's and the stores and bridge remain. Would not want to be in the gold store hanging out over the side of the bridge though!
After a bit of an odessey the first night trying to find the right restaurant for a group of really tired parents and kids, we get up to start to exlore Florence. That's when we discovered two facts about Florence. The first fact is one that everyone knows. Florence is a beautiful city. The second fact is a result of the first fact. Florence has a higher per capita ratio of Tournamis than maybe any place on earth. We think they breed there. The city was as crowded as Athens was hot. Walking the streets was like having to permanently enter and exit a rock concert or sports event. Did we mention it was crowded?
The interesting thing was the predominance of American tourists. Time to be a bit more charitable here. We started thinking about the reductionist nature of Tourism vs. Travel. We have an 'unfair advantage' as we lived in Europe, we travel extensively, and our trip we are taking is very long. But what if you haven't gotten the opportunity to go to Europe before? What if you have limited time? First trip would be London and Paris. Or if not London and Paris, Paris, Florence and Rome. Maybe Venice thrown in. Your guidebooks would be for "Italy" or "Florence". You would spend the money to get guides for the surrounding areas.
Another dimension that we are painfully aware of is weight. We left a BUNCH of travel books for Europe at home, as we did not want to carry them all over Asia for two months. Walking around Florence, one sees hoards of American kids carrying the 'let's go' Europe book. The bible for the backpacking crowd. It is 'reductionism' it the utmost, as all the kids have the same book, go to the same cities, stay at the same backpacker hostels and hotels. But that's OK.
My only issue is if folks go away from their visit to Florence, Rome and Venice thinking that it is "Europe", because it is not. There is more than what you see in a "reductionist" visit to Europe. But you gotta understand that if one's time is limited, one' ability to return to Europe frequently is limited, then the ONLY way to see Europe is via a "Greatest Hits" type of itinerary, then one must understand. However, that does not change the fact that Florence was CROWDED!
Florence is about the rise and fall of the Medici's. I won't get into it much here, as I am still reading an excellent book on the rise and fall of the Medici's, however Italy was not Italy back then (and wasn't until the late 1800's). There were a collection of powerful city-states, Naples, Rome, Pisa, Venice, and Florence. The Medici's were the lead family of Florence, but it would be an exaggeration to say they "ruled" Florence, as is was a vigorous democracy. There were 21 guilds (i.e. carpenters, butchers, blacksmiths, lawyers etc), that somehow had rules, even in the 1400's that they did not have more than 275 work days in a year, plus lots of good festivals non-stop. However, the Medici's were top of the heap. And they had GREAT names: Cosimo (there were a few), and Kim and my favorite: Lorenzo the Magnificent. There were assassination plots, and assassinations carried out. There was torture, beheadings, exiles, feuds with the Popes. A few Medici's that actually became Popes. Lots of illegitimate children (they were Italian males). All in all, great theater that has resulted in a magnificent city.
The Medici's let Michaelangelo grow up in their house. The supported Bottocelli. The funded a guy who is now one of our favorites, Fillippi Lippi. Can't show much here, as most of the museums are in the "no photo" category. The Florentines are a bit more tense than other cities, justifiably, as a bunch of loonies tried to blow up the famed Uffuzi gallery, and killed many people and trashed priceless and timeless works of art.
They DO let you take photos in many of the churches, and it is there that one learns that we better be good in this life. 'Cause if we are not, the next one is going to be awefully nasty!
Or, a broader view of the same:
And:
One leaves the building, feeling penitent, and ends up in the same place they just photographed:, just without the pitchforks:
The 'must sees' are mobbed. The Accademia, where Michelangelo's David is. Boggling, although it makes me feel old, as David is awfully studly. My wife likes him too, as David has not changed in the 18 years since she checked him out last. The Uffuzi, which is a mob scene, but still spectacular. Best of all for us was the Pitti Palace, which had great art, as well as great grounds that we did not have adequate time to explore. I mention the Pitti Palace as it had one AMAZINGLY enduring quality: NO TOUR GROUPS ALLOWED!!!! All the key artists from the Uffuzi, spectacular ground, but room to breath and explore. Lots of parts of Florence were like this, one just needed to search a bit, and go off the beaten path. Travel and tourism are an continuum. Even in the most congested places for tourism, one can still be a traveler.
I gotta put this picture in, as it is proof that you can travel with your wife and kids for months, and still all like one another.
Florence's buildings never cease to amaze. Every street is unique (except for the souvenir shops that are identical street to street).
Another, from the hill above the Pitti Palace (go there!):
Before we leave Florence, we need to bring this back a full circle. Florence's heyday was from the 1200's through the 1600's. However, if you look a Florence map, and google the history of Florence, it is readily apparent where Roman Florence existed, although all traces have been wiped away. You can see the orderly grid of the central city streets. You can see where the Roman gates were, and in fact they actually have painted on the street where one of the gates was located. When you visit the Duomo (see above), below the current Church are the remains of the "paleochristian" church from the 5th century. How did they discover these remains? In 1966 there was a massive flood of the River Arno that brought devastation throughout Florence. When they were doing repairs on the Church, the discovered the "old church" below the "new" (i.e. 1300's-1400's) church. And even here, Kim made an interesting observation. In the photo below, there are remains of some interesting 5th century mosaics. Behind the Mosaics, you can see the remains of an arch. But who ever heard of a builder building an arch that only goes up three or four feet, especially given the geometry of this arch relative to all the other arches we have seen. This means this structure goes deeper, much deeper…
The food was not great, everything was expensive, it was a breeding ground for Tournami's, but Florence is, and always will be, until covered once again, most likely by acts of nature as opposed to man, a must see. So, with an extra kilo of pasta weight, we are off to Tuscany…from Florence which is also Tuscany. Except for the parts that have been fought over the centuries by the Pisans and the King of Naples…and you wonder why Italy has had over 50 governments since 1945!!!
I'm planning to travel to Italy soon and love reading about your experiences. Did you make it to Venice?
Posted by: Italy Travel Guy | June 30, 2008 at 07:46 PM