Second week in Italy - Venezia, Italy
Venezia, Italy
Saturday 17th September Had breakfast at hotel. They organised a speedboat to take us to the railway station at their own dock. This wee porter took our 4 suitcases down the alleyways and lifted them onto the boat and we clambered on as well. The boat went through a number of canals (like backroads) and then out onto the grande canal, the subject of many paintings. We arrived at the railway station on the side of the canal. A porter took our suitcases to the station. We caught the train, we went business class which was luxurious and arrived in Florence. Took a taxi to our apartment in central Florence, Palazzo Gamba, right beside the Duomo. Our apartment( it was called gimabolgna) was on the fourth floor and was supposed to have 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms -this did not; 2 bedrooms yes, 1 bathroom (with WC) and 1 WC Complained to reception but the lady said that was what we had booked for so we made the best of it. Looked around the area, found a supermarket and bought bread, anchovies, fruit etc. on the way there we noticed a restaurant that served pork chop and chips. After a few drinks at apartment went to the restaurant unfortunately when we went outside it was bucketing with rain. People were standing in doorways and in shops but we made a run for it-maybe 100 metres. The restaurant had an awning and there was sheets of water running off it. The food was lovely, Angela had pork chop and chips, Bob and I had Chianti steak which was fillet steak cooked with wine and with pepper sauce, just lovely Sunday 18th September We went to the Ufizzi gallery We went to the Uffizi Gallery which has Italy's greatest collection of Italian paintings. Outside they have a duplicate of Michelangelo's David. The gallery is off Piazza della Signoria which was surrounded by restaurants. Across from the Uffizi is a raised area with a large numbers of statues including Perseus with medusa's head by a Cellini in bronze in 1554. We had a conducted tour of the gallery. There were works by Giotto, Leonardo, Raphael, Caravaggio, Michelangelo and a whole room by Botticelli including the Birth of Venus. The gallery showed how painting styles changed during the centuries starting with Giotto's easily stabs at Renaissance style realism and then into the real thing with Botticelli and Leonardo and finished off with Michelangelo and Titian. A good example of this were painting of the madonna with Christ, in the 13 century these were very 2 dimensional with no expressions but gradually she was holding Christ on her knees and then actually looking at him with love and definitely in 3 d with perspective. In the afternoon we went to the Galleria dell'Academia. This museum houses Michelangelo's David which is simply stunning. The statue represents David, a young shepherd boy from the bible who slay the giant Goliath with a stone flung from a sling shot. Over Davids shoulder is the sling and in his right hand the stone. The statue is 17 feet tall and is simply stunning. Michelangelo was 29 when he completed this. He was the third person to work on this block of marble, the two others felt the block was too flawed to complete but not Michelangelo. The detail is amazing. It was originally outside but moved inside in the 18th century. In the same room are a collection of marble statues the prisoners, the muscular figures struggling to free themselves from the stone. The gallery includes other important paintings from the 15th and 16th centuries, including some by Botticelli. We had dinner in apartment roast chicken One odd thing the taps in apartment are F for cold and C for hot Monday 19th September 2016 Changed apartments to Botticelli Bob sent Julie an email about apartment, she contacted the booking agency so we were shifted down to an apartment (Botticelli) which had 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms -and a view of the Doumo, a stones throw away. Two of the rooms had painted ceilings? We went to the Mercato Centrale which is huge double storied building with stalls downstairs selling; meat, vegetables, fish, wine, dried this and that and upstairs cafe and restaurants with table and chairs in the middle. There was a butcher upstairs that great meat but more of that later. We visited Museo dell'Opera del Duomo. This relates to the history of the Duomo (cathedral) most of the statues that had once been on the Duomo are displayed here. There are statues by Donatello (one carved in poplar wood!) and Michelangelo's Pietà in pride of place. The original 4 bronze doors of the Baptistry are here. These doors have a number of panels that tell a story in each panel, like the story of Christ from the annunciation through to his death. We noticed that there were several ornaments called requilaries which contained bones from saints, there was a jaw from one saint and finger bones from a John the Baptist (in 2 separate containers)- yuck. Angie and I climbed the 414 steps up the Campanile (Giotto's tower), there were several intermediate levels to catch our breath, the stairs narrow near the top and we had to stand to the side as people were coming down. It was a mixture of straight and circular stairs. The view was stunning We went to dinner upstairs at Mercato Centrale. It was packed and noisy and we were not sure what the procedure was. That butcher (see earlier) had a beautiful looking T bone steak, which we bought (1.456kgs) and they passed it onto next door where the cooked it in a charcoal grill with a hot plate and served it to us with roast potatoes and veggies. The hot plate meant that it kept on cooking but was served rare to medium rare, amazingly good. The four of us shared it, Bob Also bought some pork meat. I had to give them my drivers licence so they would give us the hot plate. Of course wine was drunk. This an amazing place, there are a few places there that you sit up at a bar but you have to have their food or do what we did, buy food and drink from various places and sit in the middle. Tuesday 20th September 2016 Went to the museum Bargello, fabulous marble statues, paintings, jewellery, crockery and glass, Church vestments and the paraphernalia associated with Churches, paintings, beauty everywhere, amazed at the craftsmanship from so long ago. Went to church next door, San Firenze, which was lovely. Saw statues opposite Ufizza (Perseus and Medusa), went to Ponte Vecchio bridge (over Arno river) which was lined with Jewellery stores and crowds, had lunch in square beside Ufizza, Piazza Vecchio After lunch we went to Orsanmichele, a lovely church which was built in 1337 as a grain store, then Angela, Angie and I walked up the dome of the Duomo, 463 steps, view of gallery and view from top over the city was stunning. Visited Baptistry beside Duomo, had a beautiful ceiling, in different layers, reminded us of a Greek Orthodox Church. Picked up car, 20 minute walk to get there, car is Toyota Aurris wagon, a hybrid station wagon -not very big. We had trouble getting the GPS to find a satellite and the streets are so narrow. Our street is in a special zone with bollards at the end of it. We needed to ring the apartment, who rang the garage who lowered the bollards. We drove the 100 m to the apartment and the garage picked it up and took it away for the night. Reversed process in the morning. Dinner at Terra Terra, a Tuscany and Sardinian restaurant 13 560 steps Wednesday 21 September 2016 Bob and I went to Mercato Centrale and bought some pork chops, sausages, black truffle cream and cakes. This was at 8:00am and at the end of our street there were about 200 teenagers, both girls and boys all waiting to go to a school there -which we had passed before but did not know it was a school - no playgrounds and looks empty during the day. Had breakfast at apartment and had rental car delivered to door. We had to drive passed the Duomo which was crowded with people and stalls. Drove to Pisa but had trouble getting out of Florence (also getting use to GPS of Luke's). Roads in Floresnce are very narrow with cars parked on each side. We were tooted at a number of times -luckily Bob drove. Pisa is a walled town of 100,000 with 45,000 students! Parked in Pisa about 5 minutes from tower etc. very hot and almost no wind. The Field of Miracles includes the Baptistery, Duomo and tower (leaning over markedly 20-25 degrees) which were all beautiful, lovely light colour with beautiful statutes all over. Lots of people there and not allowed to walk on the grass. Took plenty of photos. Drove to Lucca another walled city. We parked out side the walls and walked in through a gate in the wall. This had originally been a Roman fort and we could see some old foundations. The streets were very narrow but there were plenty of bikes, scooters and cars going all which way through the streets. We stopped for lunch at a corner restaurant and had charcuterie and hot seafood plates. What a busy place with many tourists including tourists parties, we talked to an American couple who had been there 2 weeks whose words of advice were that if you found a good restaurant, mark in on your map because it would be very difficult to find it again. Beautiful churches and loads of upmarket shops. Lovely place to spend a day in. This was a great place to visit. Rushed back to car as sky black and we heard thunder. Drove home and it started raining with lightning and thunder. We had dinner at home, had eat off the table and Angel cooked up the sausages which were lamb and lovely. Thursday 22 September 2016 Car delivered to door and we drove to San Gimignano-took about 1.5 hours but half of that was getting out of Florence -those tiny streets and roads closed. San Gimignano is a walled city of 7,000 people, its major claim to fame is that it had 72 towers originally but now only 14 (and one climbable). These towers were built by wealthy people each trying to build higher than their neighbours and if the peasants revolted and attacked them, they would burn the lower floors and lift up the ladders to keep themselves safe. The town is built on a hill, so we parked just outside the gates (in 1 of 4 car parks) and walked into town through the large gates (porta) and up the major road. This road, Via San Giovanni (St John) is just a bit wider than a car and is lined with shops and restaurants. Wild boar heads (stuffed) were in quite a few shops and available on the various menu. The shops were mainly for tourists with china jugs in the shape of chickens etc. We took a small road to the right which led to a walkway with tables and chairs with an amazing view down the valley The major piazza is Piazza della Cisterna, where there is a well (blocked off about a metre down), this well collects water from the various roofs around via a pipe system, this right outside the Duomo (Cathedral, it is also right next door to the Piazza dell Duomo. We bought ice creams; Angela lampone (raspberry) and me a pistachio, on top of each they put a little cone-delicious, nicest we have tasted in Italy. We looked at the market which had linen, clothes, shoes etc, Angie buying some lovely scarfs and me 2 shirts, there was also a small food section including fish and deli items and take away food. We bought tickets to the civic museum which included an tablet and earphones. This had been the civic offices (obviously) since the 14th century. The rooms are filled with paintings and frescoes, most of them from the 14th and 15th century, the Mayors room was fully frescoed and had various stories; one a young man getting money from his parents as he sets out on his life, becomes entrapped with 2 prostitutes, who lead him into a tent where he loses his money, is turned out and beaten. There are also a parade of better choices, marriage, the cradle of love, the bride led to the grooms house, the newly weds bathing together and retiring happily to bed. Very well done. We climbed up the tower and were rewarded with some stunning views over the surrounding valleys. Visited the Duomo which was entirely lined with Frescoes, Old Testament on one side and New Testament on the other all painted in 14th century. There is a Chapel of Santa Fina (the Saint of the gillyflowers). She was a young girl who became paralysed at age 10 and only lived until she was 15 but in that time she helped bring people to God and various miracles happened (cough cough) after she died On the way home on country roads we saw black/brown young woman, some of them lovely standing on the side of the road, all by themselves in short clothes and all made up-they were prostitutes! Odd thing they we were in a 2 km distance from Feronna The way back into Florence was an example what driving in Italy was like; if there is a space in the traffic it must be filled (drive close to the car in front to avoid), motor bikes and scooters wove in and out of the traffic, they also went between cars and went on the wrong side of the road against the flow of traffic to get ahead. We came to a roundabout which had 5 roads leading into it at about 6:00pm. It was chaos cars coming from each road pushing their way into to any gap, trying to cross and change lanes and all this with scooters weaving in and out, people tooting, windows open, people shouting and arms waving out of their windows Had pork chops at home Friday 23 September 2016 Car delivered to our door (on my birthday) went to Greve in Chianti (to see where tomorrow's market is. Went to look for market at Ferrone, then went to vineyard at Castile Di Quercetu and had wine tasting, Superb wines and we bought 3; 2 Chianti (key anti) il Picchio Classico and one of their top of the range, Querceto Romantic, a blend that we will drink on our last night together . Supposedly the Roman god Zeus fell in love with Semele they chose a wood in Chianti as their meeting place. Their union gave birth to Bacchus who when he became a god blessed the valley of his birth (where the vineyard is)! We then drove to Panzano for lunch at a famous restaurant Solociccia based around a butchery but menu was mixed and we wanted to share our lunches, they insisted we would have to pay for 4 people. We had lunch in the little piazza which was lovely; escargot, fried anchovies, meat skewers and fries. Drove home, easiest trip back into town. After rest Angie had bought a cake complete with lit candle (6) which I managed to blow out. We went to All'Antico Ristoro Di Gambi for our evening meal. It was a 30 minutes walk (everyplace is so easy to find in Florence-would be difficult to get lost here). We walked down to the river, along the side of it, across a bridge and the only issue was number of people on the pavement and road. We had seen this restaurant on TV months ago and it had a good rating and very meaty. We chose to eat outside as it was a lovely warm night but inside looked lovely but rustic. We had t bone steak 1.6 kgs for us all to share, the waitress thought we should have had 2.4kgs which is what they normally serve for 4 people, also salads. Steak was lovely and tender but service mediocre Walked home and had cake, coffee and wine