Aug 07

Florence

by in Places we've been, Things we've seen

We have never been to Italy. So, this was to be an entirely new adventure and so far it has proven to be.

I previously mentioned that not only were we late getting into Florence, it was also very hot (and humid).In actual fact the car hire depot through which we’d hired the car (Maggiore) was unmanned so we had to deal with Avis on a friends basis. Not a lot of Inglaise spoken here. I think we got the upgrade cos thats what Avis had, not Maggiore and it took a fair bit of sign language as well. I don’t know how these things work but we drove away happy after forking out a lot more Amex.

On to our hotel, booked on line as all these things seem to be these days and by which it looked quite attractive to find it was a bit(?) down at heel. Not quite as portrayed in the glossy magazine (the interwebby thingy). Did I mention it was hot. The cars temperature gauge told us at 11.00pm that it was still 35′ and so it was in the lobby, in the lift in ,the passageways, in the carpark and finally in our room. Ah! there is aircon – flip it on, set it to freezing and within minutes the temperature was down to 34′ and wonder of wonders by 2.00am it was down to a mind numbing 32′. Shit it was hot and a trip to the bathroom only served to reinforce that fact cos it was still 35′ in there. Anyway it was a fairly restless night for our first night in Italy.

Somewhat unrested the day dawned hot but we headed off to the city. There wasn’t any point taking the car so we chose to bus in but so did half of Florences population on our bus. Now you’ve seen pictures of people being pushed into Japanese trains – well the same effect was created by the doors. We were the last two on at this stop cos we chose to be courteous and we had to push up close – but then the doors shut behind us and the hydraulics did their work. I can’t tell you what I had stuck in my face. Then the bus stops at the next stop,  opens the door and we nearly pop out but there is slight relief as someone gets off through the rear doors and the crowd moves back, but 6 more attempt to get in and we push back but now we don’t have to deal with the hydraulic squash they do. And  so it went on. If the bus had a licence I’m sure it would have been for maybe 60 or 70 passengers but I would guess at 100 to 120 on board this morning. And the sweat is running down the crutch.

We get to destination finally after several more stops and loadings by which stage we’ve moved to middle of bus and now its a challenge to get off through the seething crowd –  we did but not without heaps of abuse (but they didn’t understand Inglaise).

This day was a bit of familiarisation. Walk around, study the map and tour guide, get our bearings and realize its Monday and everything pretty much is closed. But not the Duomo – the queue is but 4km long….

Bit hard to tell from this shot though but the queue continues around the corner and down the next via. Anyway we’ll get back to Il Duomo. Around town there are lots of ancient/old buildings…

and statues and big stones but when the temperature reaches 40′ in Florence you gotta head for cool….

– Ponte Vecchio over the river except that it wasn’t cool, the water is stagnant, the bridge was crowded and everything in the shops over it overpriced…

Still it was interesting the way the buildings were attached, like barnacles or limpets, propped up from underneath.

Got back to our hotel (by bus slightly less crowded) and after having left the aircon on all day the room was down to a heady 30′. Still it felt cooler than outside. Out for dinner, local restaurant where dogs are quite welcome…

(we didn’t see what the dog ordered – woof).

This night we booked a tour of Il Duomo – $148.00Aus for the benefit of bypassing the queue the next day. So back to town on the same bus, but we got on at an earlier stop and got seats. By the time we got to the stop we got on at yesterday we were smothered by sweaty bodies. Phew! But, we held our places and our breath and made town relatively unscathed. Got off the bus, reached for the camera and remembered it was by the door ready to pick up on the way out of our room. F…! Too late to go back cos we had our tour booking, decided a second (third) camera wouldn’t go astray so took directions to a camera shop to no avail but eventually found another in a back street not too far from Il Duomo and forked out more cold hard cash to take advantage of our tour. Its not the best camera but it was the cheapest and at least it provides a visual record of the day….

The church was started in the 11th century. The dome was built in the 14th century. It is unique. The structure is mind blowing even by todays standards. The outside cladding is also a later addition of marble sponsored if memory serves me by the Medici family, wealthy (very) merchants of the day (also around the 1400’s) as is the painting inside the dome. The tour itself was a bit interesting if you you could understand Inglaise, went for 2 1/2 hours but we still had to join the queue albiet in a position closer to the front than would have been the case if we’d not paid for the tour. Our lasses english was not the best.

We went on to the (a) Leonardo da Vinci exhibition…

and these models are testament to the ingenuity of this man.

We saw as much as we could deal with in the heat – again over 40′ -and I was far from well by this stage so back to the relative cool of the hotel for a bit of a lie down before dinner.

On to Modena on Wednesday with a plan to visit Ferrari but a stop in Bologna for its hospital on the way sort of put plans on hold. Four hours in and out with a scrip after diagnosis of imminent death and on to Modena. Thursday find Farmacia, get scrip filled and retire hurt to bed. Jude was happy – a day of rest in a cool hotel room. Wasn’t so bad – discovered that Ferrari tours didn’t happen in August anyway and at 290 euros each it simply wasn’t going to happen anyway (I didn’t want to buy one of their shit boxes anyhow).

Two nights in Modena but on our way out checked out the Ferrari Museo at wherever it was and….

did get to see some of the most beautiful works of art we’d yet come across.

I’m still not well but we do push on. The temperature still hovers in the high 30’s. It is very uncomfortable and we’re told by many that it is unusually hot for this time of year. Oh goody!

3 Responses to “Florence”

  1. From Robyn:

    How interesting. Didn’t realise it got so hot in Italy. Sounds like you need to get to the seaside. Just saw pictures on the news of the terrible explosion on a motorway over there. Hope you weren’t in the crowd – they said there are a lot of tourists wherever it was. And now there’s an earthquake in Indonesia – I think it’s time you came home:)

    Posted on 7 August 2018 at 3:35 pm #
  2. From Judi:

    Geez we laughed at this post! Glad to see you are enjoying the summer weather so much…NOT!! Can we ask why you didn’t use the camera on your phones? Just thought we would ask the question.

    Hope some of the heat sticks around for September and October when we are in UK and Germany.

    Posted on 24 August 2018 at 10:27 am #
  3. From Judy:

    Oh! The phones. Oh! The saga. Not enough space on the interwebby thingy to go into “the phone” here. Will have to wait till we get home. This response is much later than the post…….hopping on a jet plane in 8 days…….yay

    Posted on 24 August 2018 at 3:49 pm #

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