Day Five -- Florence

We got up at 7 am to be ready to catch our train to Florence. We actually got to eat breakfast in the hotel.  They served eggs, hot dogs, pizza, cheese, prunes, pastries and yogurt.  But mostly we just cared about the coffee. We decided not to hike to the bus stop and took a taxi. It was expensive.  The driver said it was because it was Sunday. I think it was because we were tourists. We arrived way early so I took the time to write in my journal. When the train arrived we found seats in the middle of the car where we can face forward. Gayle slept and I worked on my blog. We arrived in Florence (Firenze SMN) and went directly to the taxi stand. Can you tell we are done lugging our things down narrow, uneven streets? We are staying at Hotel Torre Guelfa, very close to Ponte Vecchio and with a great rooftop view of Florence.

 

Our room was not ready and we had timed tickets to the Uffizi and Accademia museums. We left our luggage at the hotel and took off in search of lunch. Next door to the hotel was a restaurant and we hurried in and found seats. When we were done eating we checked back with our hotel to see if our room was ready but it wasn't. We hurried off to the Uffizi. We had reservations for 2 p.m.  It is the weirdest system. First you stand in a long line to turn in your reservation number to get your ticket. You aren't allowed to pick up your tickets until 10 minutes before your assigned time.  Then you move over to another long line to get into the museum. There are a limited number of people allowed into the museum and so new visitors aren't allowed in until others leave. Other people hang out at the front of the line and try to step in while people aren't paying attention. It is a weird system but still better than waiting without a reservation -- a long line that seemed never to move.

 

The Uffizi is huge, hot and crowded. We saw Botticelli, Michelangelo and more paintings of Madonna and Child than I could absorb. 

 

By the end we were just rushing to get out. We also had a timed ticket for the Accademia for 5 p.m.  The reason we tried to do both these museums on the same day was because after we booked everything we read that both museums are closed on Monday....our only other day in Florence. Our plan was to take a taxi between the two museums. What we didn't know was that the mile between these two museums has a large area that is pedestrian only.  We took off at a quick pace but the sites between were so amazing we stopped repeatedly to look in awe.

 

We arrived at the Accademia hot, exhausted, limping and discouraged. We expected the same long process we experienced at the Uffizi. It was a two step process but no one was in front of us. We took a few minutes to get something cold to drink in an attempt to rejuvenate ourselves. The signature piece of art in the Accademia is Michelangelo's 17 foot tall statue of David.  It is of David just before slaying Goliath. It is mesmerizing....awe-inspiring...absolutely beautiful.  We walked around it several times. Sat down and stared at it from every angle. We took more photos than we will want later. What a masterpiece. 

 

We also spent time studying the statue of the Rape of the Sabines. 

 

There was a second floor to the Accademia but we did not go up. My ankle was screaming by then and we knew we had to walk back to our hotel. We slowly made our way back, taking more time to admire the Duomo. 

We found a restaurant down a side alley from the Duomo. I had a delicious plate of eggplant parmigiana. We continued to slowly stroll back to the hotel but with gelato in our hands this time. We got back to our hotel at 8 p.m. And collected our key and bags from the desk clerk named Luigi. We took the lift to room 202. We figured out how to unlock our room but couldn't get it to lock on the other side. I told Gayle that I would go down and tell Luigi that we needed help. When I went back to the elevator (the one we just came up on 5 minutes ago) there was a huge pile of poop in the middle of the elevator. I returned to the room. Gayle knows that I am having trouble with stairs so she headed down the stairs to get Luigi's help. He said we just needed to turn the knob. Gayle came back up but it was clear that the knob isn't even connected to the lock. She headed back down the stairs more frustrated than before. This time Luigi said he would send the maintenance guy but that he was busy at that moment cleaning up a mess in the elevator. I'm sure that is true. The maintenance guy came and as he tried to show us how to lock the door he struggled with the lock. I told him that even if we did get it locked it is so hard to maneuver that if there was a fire we would probably burn to death. He tried to get us a new room but the hotel was full. Gayle managed to lock the door.  We went to bed praying there wasn't a fire.