a better me

florence day 1:

We arrived at S.M. Novella train station in Florence early afternoon on October 2 and made our way by foot to our second airbnb apartment of the trip (“la Gompa”).  It was about a 5-10 minute walk made a little more difficult by our luggage and the very narrow streets and sidewalks (many of which cars were partially pulled up onto to make room for street parking).  Our host, Silvia, met us at the front door and took us up to the apartment (another 4 flights of stairs, as it happened).  The apartment was essentially a large room with a lofted bedroom that looked down over the kitchen and living room area.  From the bedroom, there was a ladder to a roof-top terrace with the most amazing views of Florence (including the Duomo).

After we settled into our new digs, we hit the streets of Florence to get acclimated to the area.  The apartment itself wasn’t in the prettiest section of town, but it was an easy 5 minute walk to Piazza del Duomo (location of Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore (the Duomo) and there were grocery stores and restaurants around every corner.  We checked out Piazza del Duomo, a few other piazzas, florence’s leather markets, the Palazzo Vecchio clock tower and then headed to check out the lines for the Gallerie degli Uffizi, which are infamously long.  The line was an approximate two-hour wait, which isn’t bad for the museum, but more time than we wanted to spend in line (then, or ever, really).  We decided to keep walking and deal with the Uffizi later.

We continued our walk all the way to the Ponte Vecchio (“old bridge”) and window shopped at some of the jewelry stores lining the bridge.

Not long after crossing the Ponte Vecchio we reached Palazzo Pitti — a huge palace, some of which dates back to the 1400’s.  By that time, we had walked quite a distance and our feet were not especially pleased.  We turned around and started heading back toward our apartment.  On our way back, we decided to stop by the Uffizi once again just to survey the lines.  Because it was about 5:30 or 6:00 and the gallery was closing in about an hour, there was NO line.  With some cajoling, I was able to convince Rob to pop in with me to see if we could buy tickets for the following day.  Although we could not buy tickets for the following day there, they were able to point us to another desk where we could (#3 if you look at the diagram of the U-shaped Uffizi located outside of the museum).  We walked right in, purchased our tickets, and headed on our merry way.  SO much better than the horrible ticket-purchasing stories I read online!  On that note, we checked out the piazza by the Uffizi (Piazza della Signoria, including a replica of the David statue and the Fountain of Neptune) and headed back to the apartment to figure out dinner.

Fountain of Neptune:

After so much walking and quite a bit of traveling for one day, we decided to take it easy for the evening.  We picked up some “take-away” pizza and drinks to enjoy at our favorite place in Florence thus far — our roof-top terrace!

florence day 2:

Rejuvenated from a nice, long sleep, we headed back out to the streets of Florence.  This time, with more of a plan.  First, we headed to Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore (the Duomo).  There was only a very short line to get in and explore the church.

Although it was easy, and free, to get into the church, there was a separate line and a fee to climb the 414 steps to the top of the Duomo.  Fortunately, we were there early enough that even after exploring the church, there were only a handful of people waiting in line in front of us.  We were climbing stairs (lots of stairs) before we knew it.  The views from the top of the Duomo, however, were worth every one of the 414 steps (and more)!

After pouring over the gorgeous views from the top of the Duomo, we headed over to the Uffizi just in time for our 12:15 reservations.  We probably waited in line a total of 20 minutes to get into the museum and through security–which is nothing!  Unfortunately, I couldn’t take pictures inside the museum, so I don’t have much to show for it.  Neither Rob nor I are very into art museums, so we did our best to take our time and soak in all of the famous works, but we were in and out of the Uffizi rather quickly (partially due to the fact that we had bypassed lunch to make it to the Uffizi on time–not that they even checked the time of our reservation when we entered!).  As soon as we were finished at the Uffizi, we headed straight to a late lunch to make up for lost time.  We had some delicious drinks, spinach and cheese ravioli and bruschetta . . . and some very lousy pizza.  Who knew Italy was capable of bad pizza?!  It tasted almost identical to Ellio’s pizza, only worse, if that’s possible.  When we got up to leave, the people at the table next to us joked that they were going to eat the rest of our pizza when we left (we ate less than half).  We gave it to them with our blessing.  Little did they know, the joke would be on them.

To make up for the lousy pizza, we settled for an extra large helping of gelato.  Never a disappointment!  After a bit more traversing the streets of Florence, we headed back to the apartment to lounge on the terrace and enjoy the last hour or so of the warm, sunny afternoon.  We headed back out around 7:30 and explored all the way to the Arno river, which runs through Florence (the river the Ponte Vecchio spans).  We stopped for an appetizer and some delish drinks (I had some kind of grapefruit cocktail) at a fancy restaurant, Caffe Giacosa, and sat outside people watching for a bit.

After whetting our appetite at Caffe Giacosa, we headed off to dinner (probably more pizza, pasta and drinks) and then back to our temporary Florence home.

florence day 3:

First things first, we enjoyed a leisurely and delicious breakfast on the terrace:

We wanted to enjoy our last full day in Florence without trying to squeeze in too much, so we chose one main sight for the day — Palazzo Pitti (and the Boboli Gardens).  The gardens were so vast and amazing!  There were beautiful fountains, intricate statues around every corner, immaculate landscaping, endless paths, spectacular views of Florence, quaint rose gardens, lots of ancillary buildings the royalty used for various leisure activities… Definitely one of my favorite sights throughout our tour of Italy (although the many mosquito bites I collected throughout were not my favorite).

We spent hours exploring and enjoying the gardens until our stomachs (and bug bites) needed some TLC, so we dedicated the rest of the day to R&R (and eating).

florence day 4 (travel to Positano):

Unfortunately, we only had enough time our 4th morning in Florence to pack up our things and hit the road.  We headed back to the train station to catch our train south to Naples (Napoli).  The train ride wasn’t bad at all–TrenItalia is basically like Amtrak (internet, food car, electrical outlets, etc.).  The next leg of our long trip to Positano, was a second, less comfortable train from Naples to Sorrento.  The ride was about an hour long, mostly due to the many stops along the way, and, unfortunately, we got stuck with standing room only (not especially relaxing).  Although glad to get to Sorrento, our trip wasn’t over yet!  We caught a bus from Sorrento to Positano.  The big bus was whipping around sharp corners on the edge of cliffs, with only a few honks to warn any oncoming traffic.  Fortunately, our driver seemed to know what he was doing and we eventually made it to Positano.  According to our handy offmaps app, our hotel, Albergo Punta Regina was less than a mile away, so, instead of waiting for the local bus, we decided to try walking it.  Of course, Positano was significantly warmer than Florence (at least 10 degrees)… and all of the roads led steeply up or steeply down … so less than a mile or not, it was quite a trek, especially with luggage.  By the time we arrived at our splurge-of-a-hotel, we were literally dripping and more ready than ever for the luxury that awaited us!

To be continued …