October 22, – Day 3 – Florence

October 22, - Day 3 – Florence - Pictures

• 0800 wake up, eat breakfast and out of the hotel by 0930


• Walk the 10 minutes to the Rome Train Station where we wait to board our 1030 –Train # 9434 to Milan. We sit in Car 1, Seats 41 and 42. Across from us is a nice older American couple. The train makes stops in Florence and Bologna


• We detrain at 1206 at Santa Maria Novella Station in Florence


• After spending a good 5 minutes looking for the taxi stand (we were about 500 yards away), we catch a cab and go to our hotel


• We are staying at Hotel De La Villa on Piazza Antinori on Via Tornabouni. We have been upgraded to a small corner suite #415 for no additional charge. The room is more spacious than our room in Rome with an entrance, a small sitting area, a double closet, a large desk, a larger bathroom with 2 sinks, and a bigger bed.


• We are off to explore the city of Firenze around 1245.


• First stop the Piazza Del Duomo, which is a large piazza with three large buildings, the Duomo (cathedral) itself, the baptistery and the bell tower.





• We decided to climb the bell tower and all of its 414 steps. We start the first steps right at 1300. Getting to the first level (there are three), seems the hardest. Once we begin to see the tops of the building we decide there is no stopping us now and continue on to the next level. The second level probably 2/3 of the way to the top and has a great cool October breeze blowing through. It is the perfect place to stop, take pictures, enjoy the views and catch your breath (and give the calf’s a rest). Finally it off to the top of tower which provides beautiful panoramic views of Florence and the accompanying countryside. We finish our climb at 1322. You can walk completely around the tower and see for miles on a clear day (which luckily enough it is today). After we take it all in and begin to understand the infinite beauty that is Florence, we begin our descent. (I forgot to look at my watch when we got to the bottom)




• Next stop the Duomo, the largest basilica in all of Florence. We enter in and are in awe of the pageantry and majesty of the architecture. Although the majority of Italian art is primarily Christian in nature, it is still stunning and breath-taking to say the least. To contemplate the human feat of ingenuity, engineering and architecture that went into building these magnificent building is mind-boggling. The stain-glass windows, the massive clock, the art, every detail of the chapel are simply stunning. Without a tour guide or a book, it is impossible to know exactly what we are looking at, but it is still a sight we won’t ever forget.


• Upon exiting the Duomo chapel, we inquire how to climb to the top of the basilica. We are told that we must walk around to the other side of the building enter near the rear of the building. We see that this has 436 steps and no lift, so we decide that we can do this on another day.


• We then sit in the piazza for almost 30 minutes, just enjoying watching the people go by, listening to all the languages being spoken and taking it all in. A perfect way to spend our first afternoon in this beautiful city.


• Soon, our stomachs begin to question why they have not been fed and we head off to find sustenance. We come across a nice little restaurant in the north east corner of republic square where I get a Pizza with mushrooms and yellow peppers; Nancy gets spaghetti with red sauce. Once again the tomatoes in the sauce are so fresh and tasty; I can only attribute it to the soil in Italy being different than the soil in the US. Otherwise, I don’t have an explanation why the taste is so much more alive here.


• After lunch we go in search of Gelato. We eventually find a place that has over 60 flavors. I take a taste of amaretto and Nancy takes more coconut gelato.


• We then decide to stroll around central Florence, walking in and out of the little streets, looking at the various restaurants and shops, never getting very far away but finding lots of little streets to walk down.


• Eventually we find ourselves back in Republic Square (which is actually a square as opposed to the one in Rome which is really a circle) around 1630, and sit down by the carousel and watch children ride the merry-go-round. There are a bunch of elderly woman sitting on the bench adjacent to us, with two groups of elderly men, on another bench, and the other on a bench near the street. This looks like any classical Italian scene you may have pictured from the movies or images you might think of when you think of this country. It was a perfect way to end the day.




• We head back to our hotel around 1715 for a short siesta before our 2000 dinner reservation.


• We leave the hotel around 1900 and decide we want to see more of Florence and walk off some of that gelato we had earlier.


• We head towards the San Lorenz Leather market, and find it closing down, with the all the stalls being put away for the night. We both comment that this must be hard to operate a store on wheels and have to pack it and unpack it every day. But hey, you gotta do what you gotta do to earn a living right?


• Wondered around until we found ourselves back at the train station.


• Nancy forced me to ask two doorman at the closest hotel for directions back to the Duomo, which was literally straight ahead of us (but the road curved, so we could not see it), so we headed back toward the Duomo and our hotel for dinner.


• Finally we sit down for dinner around 2000 at Buca Lapi. We start off with an excellent bruschetta. We then decide to share our main courses, so we order a Steak Florentine and a Grilled Veal Chop, with a side of Spinach with Garlic and Oil. The Florentine Steak is rumored to be one of the best in the city. Nancy had one of the best seats in the house as she was facing the open kitchen and could see one of the chefs butchering sides of beef and cutting them into this local favorite. He just kept bringing out more meat, taking the meat cleaver and then throwing the steaks on a charcoal grill. I have always said meat cooked on wood or charcoal tastes significantly better than when cooked on gas or in an oven. This restaurant proved this theory all over again. For those of you who don’t know what Florentine Steak is (and I did not before today) it is essentially a very large piece of filet mignon served on the bone, very similar to a New York Style Steak. Needless to say, this piece of meat was out of this world. The Veal was a t-bone, and was also excellent.


• Luckily the hotel was just around the corner so we were able to waddle back and crash having thoroughly enjoyed our first day and night in Florence.