firenze

We arrived in Firenze in the evening. The first thing we did was walk toward the duomo, after checking in to the hotel. It was a little surreal walking out the door of the hotel and seeing the duomo right there in front of my face, lit in the darkness. It brought back memories of the many late night drives from Caponnole to Firenze and back when I was a student and we would all pile into Stefano's car when we were bored of the Tuscan countryside and wanted to visit the city. We would approach Firenze and then, peeking from around a corner, there would be the duomo, lit in the darkness, just as it was again. The only difference was that we could not sit around the baptistery as we did then because it is now completely covered in scaffolding. But it was so nice to experience this with Holden and Dave. There is a small Eataly near the duomo and we went there for a quick pizza.  Then we walked around the city in the night and headed back to the hotel for some rest.

duomo at night

The next morning we met with Luca and Anna and the students and went back to the duomo, this time climbing the incredibly steep stairs, partly between the two domes, to reach the top and to see a marvelous view of the city.

looking down into the nave from the halfway point in climbing the dome

the space in between the two domes

holding on tight to Holden at the top

looking out at the view from the top

on top of the duomo with Anna and Luca

panoramic view of Firenze from the top of the duomo

Then we descended the stairs, left the students for awhile, and went out to find a pancake brunch in Firenze. We found this delightful milk bar called La Milkeria, which served pancakes with a scoop of vanilla gelato and fruit and also made wonderful cappucini.

pancakes at La Milkeria

After brunch, we headed to the Piazza della Repubblica to ride the antique carousel.

carousel in Piazza della Repubblica

carousel in Piazza della Repubblica

carousel in Piazza della Repubblica

carousel in Piazza della Repubblica

Holden really enjoyed the carousel and then from here we went to Mercato Centrale to meet Dave and Luca for lunch. Mercato Centrale is a huge indoor market with three levels. On the top level are the restaurants, in the middle level are the food stands where you can order anything imaginable and then take it back to one of the open tables in the center, not entirely unlike a food court in a mall (although much more beautiful). And the lower level is the market that sells all kinds of fruits, vegetables, meats, cheeses, pastries and various other dolci. You can also take cooking classes at the cooking school inside the market and we looked into it, but realized there was not enough time for one of these classes. We finally decided on eating the pasta with truffles in the middle level of the market.

Mercato Centrale

Then we did a little shopping near the Ponte Vecchio and in a few of the outdoor leather markets but then the rain came so we headed back to the hotel (Holden and I skipping the Galleria dell'Accademia) with picnic ingredients and had a nice little picnic in our room.

The next morning, Sunday, we met Dave and Luca and Anna and the students and toured some of the Fiorentine palazzi, including the Palazzo Vecchio. We walked to Mercato Nuovo, a leather goods market that has the Fontana del Porcellino along its south side. For those of you from Greenville, this is identical to the wild boar statue we have on Main Street.

Fontana dell Porcellino - the same as in Greenville

From here we walked along Via Por Santa Maria and walked across the Ponte Vecchio, then on to Pitti Palace and the Giardini di Boboli (Boboli Gardens) in Oltrarno. Because of the off and on rain we were experiencing in Firenze, we also experienced some amazing sun/shadow contrasts throughout the day.

Dave and Holden on the Ponte Vecchio

Holden and Dave on the Ponte Vecchio

view of the Fiume Arno from the Ponte Vecchio

grotto at Giardini di Boboli 

grotto at Giardini di Boboli

Giardini di Boboli

Giardini di Boboli

finding snail shells at Giardini di Boboli

labrynth with Luca at Giardini di Boboli

It began raining a little at the Boboli Gardens, which were lovely and also fun for Holden, so we headed to Santo Spirito. It was a beautiful way to dry off from the rain for a few moments and as Holden will never let me forget, we left our umbrella in here.

Santo Spirito

In front of the church there was a nice farmer's market with handmade goods too and a great coffee shop, Volume.  Then we went to Tamero, where they made homemade pasta in front of us, and had a group lunch. Luca ordered a variety of pasta for the table including ravioli, pici, and gnocchi.  This was probably Holden's highlight of the entire trip, we couldn't pry him away from watching the cooks and pasta makers and he absolutely loved the pasta, expecially the gnocchi.  He now has a gnocchi making date with Anna when we return to Genova. One of the students had a birthday this day, so we also ordered cantucci (dolci) and a slice of cake for her (and she ordered some drinks as well) and sang and celebrated her birthday.

pasta making at Tamero

group lunch

After lunch, we walked back across the Arno River and checked out Bartolucci, the famous wooden toy shop.

view of the Ponte Vecchio

Holden chose a yo-yo to buy and Luca also bought him a pinocchio as a gift. Then we went to visit the Uffizi Gallery.  After visiting the Uffizi, Holden was given the nickname Rosso Fiorentino after Giovanni Battista di Jacopo of the Florentine school of Renaissance painting, who painted many curly red-haired angels, including Putto Che Suona. We were given many souvenirs of these Renaissance angels that everyone compared to Holden. After the Uffizi we headed to Cafe Riviere for a cioccolata calda on Luca. Then we headed back to the Mercato Nuovo, near the statue of the porcellina, and Holden purchased a very nice leather pencil pouch. We were hoping to grab some panini at the famous 'ino, but then the rain came back so we headed to the hotel for a light picnic in the room, since we already had pretty full bellies.

Holden sketching in the Uffizi

sunset over Ponte Vecchio from window in Uffizi 

Monday morning was raining pretty steadily so we went with the students and Dave and Anna and Luca to the San Lorenzo complex and sketched and watercolored and played around and made an offering in the church and then Holden tried to sketch how an organ works as he listened to a lady play the organ in the basilica.

San Lorenzo

watercoloring at San Lorenzo

watercoloring at San Lorenzo

figuring out how an organ works

Then we went to a nice trattoria with Luca and Anna for lunch, while the students had some free time to shop. We ate polpette (meatballs) and more gnocchi and cantucci and coffee and then we headed to Santa Maria Novella (which also brings back many memories) and got on the train back to Genova. It was a long train ride back but we had a nice break in Pisa for some watercoloring. Then when we arrived at the villa, dinner was waiting for us.

watercoloring in the train station in Pisa