Seeing the Sights of Firenze

Good evening! Hard to believe we're only one full day into our trip. We've already seen and done so much. We're staying at a little place near the Duomo. We took a cab from the airport to the hotel (normal driving should have taken about 30 or so minutes to get there...our driver made it in 15...YIKES!). I must admit that I am so glad that we were not driving (or having to find our hotel). Tino sat next to the driver and described how to find The Hotel Centrale were we were staying. When we turned down a very narrow, one way street, I thought there must be a communication error and that we were lost. We stopped in front of a very small door, in front of a very narrow, tall building I was convinced that we were lost. But, turns out it was the right place.

Before I describe anymore of the hotel, let me tell you about our (or should I say Collette's) luggage. Before we left home, we all decided that we would take one bag each. We all managed to get everything in one suitcase each (Collette's seems to be the heaviest!). Tino kept saying that he couldn't imagine how we were going to manage it in Venice on the water taxi. But we'll share more on that later...

Remember when I mentioned a very narrow, but tall building? Tall means that the hotel begins on the 4th floor. The "lift" is so small that you can barely fit one person and one bag in it (not to mention that it is very slow). Up the stairs we went. We managed to get everything up the spiral staircase and into the lobby. Remember that I mentioned that the hotel begins on the 4th floor? We still had another two flights to get to our room. We all managed and the rooms turned out to be very pleasant.

Now on to today (Friday). We woke to sound of church bells chiming and birds chirping at 7:45 am. This is the day we get to visit the Acadamia. We got to see the Michaelangelio statue of David (we were disappointed to learn that you can't take photos of statue) and many other fabulous works of art.

Afterwards, we were off to see the Duomo which meant we had a 414 step climb to the top. By lunchtime, we were at the top. The climb was not as bad as we expected, but in some parts the stairs we narrow and vertically challenging (in other words, in some parts it was .75 Tom tall and .50 Tom wide). Collette barely survived the claustrophobia issues. The climb was sure worth the effort as you can see from the attached photo.

We feasted on pizza before we visited the Santa Croce Church where the tombs of many famous Florentines, like Michelangelio and Galileo rest. Right afterwards, we trekked over to Note di Vino (right outside the Piazza della Signonia) for a snack and cold drink.

After a brief siesta, we were on the run again. Once we discoverved that we were missing a cell phone (which is our primary contact with blogging, kids, baby updates, etc.), so we knew we had to retrace our steps. Tino remembered last using it at the Note di Vino. Hopefully, it would still be there. The hotel called over and confirmed that it was right where he left it (next to the empty bottle of vino). We walked over and retrieved the phone (whew!) and were off to make dinner reservations. Someone recommeded that we try a little place called Aqua al 2. We stopped in to make a reservation. The earliest that they could get us in was at 9:30 pm. We snapped up the time and set out to wander around a bit. We settled in at a little cafe called Pallaza Vecchio for a little snack before dinner. We watched the sunset over the Piazza and then headed off for dinner.

Amazingly, even at 9:30 at night, the restaurant was packed! We tried several sample dishes. Very good feast and the service was great. TC had her first taste of grappa (a very very strong aperatif that she says she may not ever try again!). Now we're back at the hotel and getting ready to settle in for the evening.

Tomorrow, we're off to see the Uffizzi and then to the villa in Tuscany. So long for now. More tomorrow.

Tom, Theresa, Tino & Collette