Tuscany and Florence

On day 3 of our trip we left Rome after lunch and drove about 4 hours into the heart of the Tuscan hill. We passed charming hill towns along the way. Tuscany is a pretty countryside that reminded me of the Texas hill country with Italian villages instead of Texan small towns. Olive trees, wine and other agricultural pursuits are the main economic drivers outside of tourism.

The hotel where we stayed was called Il Croccichio and had the best breakfast of our entire trip. After arriving at our hotel, David and I washed clothes and rested while the girls went swimming. Dinner that night was at the hotel and was a Tuscan feast. We had Italian peasant bread, salad, sausage and cheese, and dessert.

Day 4 dawned bright and early and we boarded the bus for our trip into Florence. Florence is a mecca for art lovers, and I can only wish we had had more time there. I think I could have fallen in love with the city. As it was, it was extremely crowded, pushy and otherwise not the best of experiences.

Our first stop in Florence was the Academia to see Michelangelo's David. I took this picture before I realized you weren't supposed to. The hallway leading up to David has several of Michelangelo's "prisoners." Sculptures that he bagan and worked on at various stages during his life but never finished. I thought the prisoners were very thought provoking.

After the Academia we met our tour guide, Valentina, and walked to the main square in the city where the Duomo stands. Duomo is Italian for "cathedral." The Florentine Duomo is the 4th largest in the world, made of green and white marble striped for effect. The dome was designed by Brunellesci and is the model for most domes created afterwards, including the one in the US Capilol Building. While I really wanted to go inside the church, the lines were too long and we didn't have time.

From here we walked along through the old town to an open air market where a statue of a boar sits. You rub his nose and drop a penny into the grate for good luck and a return trip to Florence. Finally we made it to the Uffizi to find out that the air conditioning was broken in the building and they were only letting a few people in at a time. We waited for over an hour to get in and then toured the famous paintings and other works of art in the Uffizi. These included the Birth of Venus, Michelangelo's painting of the saints including a frame he carved out of wood (which was super interesting), Bottecelli's "Spring" and many others. Pictures weren't allowed, so I don't have any.

After the Uffizi, David went to the Science and Technology museum, and Alyssa, Elizabeth and I went with our friends the Peterson's for pizza. After pizza we shopped and bought a few things. On our way out of town, we stopped at a scenic overlook and got some greats shots of Florence. you can see how the duomo dominates the city.

Then we returned to our hotel for another fabulous afternoon of swimming, recreation and another Tuscan feast! This time I had eggplant (so yummy) and gelato for dessert.

I loved Florence and would have been so happy had it just been me and about 200 other people in the city. Instead it was overwhelmingly crowded and our "true Italian" experience consisted of fighting our way into the Uffizi, literally blocking pushy tour groups from getting passed us in line. While I would have liked to have had the time and space to experience Florence for all she's got to offer, I was glad to leave. This isn't to say I'm not interested in going back, I just think it would be wise to do so in November when the tourist crowds aren't so bad.

Another thing I learned to appreciate in this part of our trip was that being a part of a tour group gets you access quicker and easier to places than you would if you weren't. Because of the AC problems, only tour groups were allowed access to the Uffizi. We would have waited for hours only to find out that we couldn't go. That would have been horribly disappointing. The "power tours" of the highlights seemed worth it at that point.

I think that Tuscany is one of those charming areas of the world that has held onto its charm because of economic hard times. It sort of "froze" expansion and development and has become an interesting place for tourism because no other place in the world exists quite like it. I definitely want to go back on my own and explore the hill towns, talk to the people, taste the crops fresh out of the fields. And I would love the opportunity to take lots and lots of pictures. It's such a beautiful landscape that it begs for photos, and driving by in a bus just doesn't provide those opportunities.