Here I am in Florence. The view from my room is not all that great, but I can see the Duomo from the breakfast table. I'm in the Piazza della Repubblica which makes getting to everything very easy.
Here is what that piazza looks like.
(When you need a way of telling your family from the rest of the throngs of tourists - dress everyone in red check raincoats)
It's a perfect location. In all my other hotels, I was situated miles from where I wanted to hang out. Now I'm never more than 10 minute walk (and 100 stairs - I'm on the top floor, but there is a cool old fashioned lift with wire doors you shut manually).
They must have known I was coming and put this poster up on the wall. It is in the hallway and I see it every time I leave my hotel room.
I've gone a bit nuts with the cat figurines too. Italy does figurines very well. I think the old Nerditorium bookshelf will have to be re-named the Felinary.
Yep. Florence.
It's like that everywhere. Like I'm at a music festival, only it's cold and wet and every second person is pushing a bloody pram!
I'm getting used to it so I'm still smiling and laissez faire about the whole thing.
Interesting fact: Someone said "pantaloon" in my ear ear really loudly yesterday.
Thought you should know.
One thing I have learned about Florence is you can not capture the enormity of it with a camera. The images of Florence I had seen online were shot taken from the hills showing the rooftops and the Duomo. I was expecting terracotta coloured Greek style low buildings with a church in the middle of town. But all those building are huge and the Duomo is the hugest things I've seen since Hagia Sophia.
Here are some little shots trying to get the scale:
The city is gorgeous. I just love it and the crowds can be avoided, amazingly.
Tickets to the Museums - An Odyssey Quest Thing of Epic Proportions
I booked my tickets for Uffizi and Academia Galleries when I arrived on the 2nd January and booked for the 4th and 5th . But I never got a notification. On the 4th I got an email saying my credit card details were not right. Hmmm... Gee thanks for letting me know. But what I discovered is that if you want to buy tickets to the museums you need to book at least three days in advance. Here's what went down:
Tuesday 2 January
Booked tickets for the 4th and 5th.
Wednesday 3 January
Blissfully wandered about looking around happy in the knowledge that I had bought my tickets
Thursday 4 January
Received email telling me my credit card details were wrong.
Called the booking company who told me to wait and check my email in an hour
An hour later - called the booking company who told me to wait "another few minutes"
A few minutes later - called the booking company who told me to send them an email
Wrote an email.
Received the vouchers for the Uffizi and the Academia Galleries.
Got on with my day.
Friday 5 January
Skipped breakfast to get to the Uffizi by 8am. There were people starting to line up at Door 2 which was the door to line up at if you didn't go to a whole lot of trouble to make a reservation.
The sign told us to line up at Door 3 if you have a reservation voucher.
This, it turns out, is Door 3.
Once we lined up in the cold for 15 minutes we went into Door "3" to be given our tickets to line up at Door 1.
So this is the line at Door 1. It was at this stage when we are lining up here, with our tickets, I watched all the people who had rocked up with no reservation, who waited about 15 minutes in line - at Door 2 - just walk - right - in - before us.
Yep. I started questioning everything at this point!
Then.... stairs... so many stairs. And it isn't helping calling it a "Grand" staircase. It's still a lot of stairs.
There were 5 or 6 flights.. I forget... I lost feeling in my extremities at one stage after the cold.
But the gallery is lovely! A lot smaller than I was expecting after Paris galleries. The view from the top is amazing, but the orange juice sucked my eyeballs in. Don't order the fresh orange juice.
This is the Signoria Palace (Now the Vecchio) the site where the fresco-showdown between Leonardo and Michelangelo went down. Brushes at 10 paces! And for what? Both are lost now.
Amazing views from the Uffizi top floor. Three hours of Virgin Mother and Child and my new boots hurt. But I did it! I walked through every room and have developed a new sense of zen with crowds of tourists that plow through rooms looking for the famous paintings. Enjoyed listening to a Japanese tour guide talking about Botticelli's Spring.
Downstairs was a temporary exhibition of Japanese screen art from the middle ages. So beautiful!.
And all gallery visits have to end with armed guards or police.
On Wednesday I went to the Museo de Galileo! Two hours of extreme nerd squeeee!!
These instruments help you do CALCULUS!!! That's incredible. The detail!
And there is poor old Galileo in the foreground and in the background two of his fingers that were broken off his corpse 95 years after his death. Weird way of honouring someone.
Check out the picturesque-ness!
Remnents of Bruges: These are the architectural photos you have been looking for.
On New Years Day I had Bruges to myself, everything was closed till 1pm and the tourists were either sleeping or forming the Samsonite Express across the cobblestones.
Not only did I have the place to myself, but the SUN came out and there was some blue sky! So I went for a walk around and took some much needed photography of architecture (for De).
But don't be thinking "Oh, Bruges looks nice and peaceful!". These photos were taken early in the morning of New Years Day when everyone was asleep and all the shops were shut. Otherwise it's like New York! Only everyone is in tourist mode staring into space, not looking where they're going. There is a special place in hell for people who walk backwards!
Let's finish with some art from the Uffizi today:
Until I blog again... Buono Estente! Butros Butros Galli!
#TheFastShow
