Florence August 9 and 10

Florence Sunday August 7 arrival to Friday August 12 departure

Florence: August 9 – Tuesday and August 10 - Wednesday

ps I forgot to mention that we passed a church which established a fund for middle class people who had fallen on hard times and were too proud to ask for money. All they needed to do was light a candle and leave it on the stone floor and the priest would take care of them. That's where we get the saying "stone broke." I've posted a couple of pictures of the interior and exterior.

Also the rooster and the figurine are tiny and parts of them have been made from baroque pearls. There were about a hundred of these in the Medici collection.  absolutely exquisite. 

This is the fourth trip Cham and I have made to Florence and truly, I’ve never been a huge fan until this visit.  It’s a remarkable city with a very rich history.  Today was dedicated to visiting the Pitti Palace.  The Pitti Palace was the last home of the Medici family.  As with many of the buildings in Italy, it has a very imposing, austere fortress like appearance on the outside without giving away any of the treasures found inside. Cham thought it would take at least a day to visit the Boboli Gardens and Palace rooms and he was exactly right.  We got an early start for us (we’ve really gotten spoiled on this trip by starting later than we normally would) because we didn’t want to be in the gardens during the heat of the day.  Non Florentines have to pay to visit but they’re open free of charge to all citizens.  The way we entered was to go through a very imposing courtyard through a huge garden and then a climb up the hill.  The gardens are massive and I’m sure in their time, they were magnificent, but unfortunately, they’ve seen better days. None of the fountains were working and many of the garden sections were blocked off.  They only had a couple of roses near the porcelain collection house. But, the views were spectacular and I imagine if paths could talk, incredible tales could be told.  There are two grottoes in the garden but only was open and that alone was worth the price of admission.  Parts of it have been recently restored and none of the waterworks were operating, but it was fascinating.  The statuary was obviously old, but it looked like modern art.  It also contained the original “slaves,” the statues that Micheanglo sculpted that has half of the figures appearing as if they’re trying to break out of the marble.  They’re now housed in the Academia building with the David.   They’re some of my favorite pieces of sculpture and I had no idea they were originally in the Pitti Palace. 

After the garden, we visited the Palace and didn’t get finished doing that either.  They’re having a special fashion / costume exhibit and we probably spent more time looking at that than we anticipated.  The “costumes” belonged to fashion figures from the early 1920’s through today.  Some of the pieces were absolutely gorgeous.  After that, we tackled the interior rooms.  Most of them had been redone in the 1850s and the silk walls and window treatments were in amazing condition. Everyone was very quiet as they walked through the rooms because they demanded respect.  They were lovely.

We had no specific plans on Wednesday so part of the morning was spent doing logistics for our upcoming travel.  Later that day while walking through the city, Cham found a type of “Tickets” kiosk for tours.  We signed up for a day long Chianti tour on Thursday and also for a play that night that gave a history of the Medici family.  As we were walking around, we saw an ad for a film that was being shown on the interior walls of an historic but deconsecrated church.  I don’t know how popular these are in the U.S., but they seem to be all the rage in Europe.  It was very interesting.  It gave a view brief overview of the history of Florence and there were definitely historical aspects they certainly glossed over, but as someone commented when they were leaving, they did a pretty good job of boiling down 800 years of history into 25 minutes.

We went back to the grocery store after the film and stopped at a wine bar to sample some wines before shopping. We met a delightful young couple of Indian heritage who were from Calgary.  They had gotten married 30 days before but had saved their honeymoon for a cousin's wedding at Lake Como.  It was a wonderful conversation about cultures, travel experiences, etc. Yet another great group of people we've met along the way.

 That evening we went to the play which was located near the Florence train station.  Much like Venice, I don’t think I ever reached the same destination in Florence using the same route twice.  It’s quite the rabbit warren.  As it was a 15 minute walk according to google maps, ha!, we left 45 minutes in advance and were still 5 minutes late. The venue was an old chapel and I don’t know this, but I imagine it was owned by the Medici’s at some point because it was surrounded by Medici property.  It was a two person play which focused on the last two Medici’s. The Grand Duke is now presumed to have been gay because as he was married, he found his wife, and all women repugnant so never had any children.  His sister had no children as well. Fortunately, she had the foresight to leave all of the Medici treasures to the city of Florence with the proviso that none of them could ever leave the city.  I was glad we had visited the Pitti Palace because they had briefly shown a picture of her and credited her with all of the wonderful art and collections that remained in the Palace.

Unfortunately, we were on the back row of chairs making it hard to hear and it was also extremely hot.  We had passed a barber shop on the way to the play so about two thirds of the way through the play, Cham told me he was leaving and going to get a haircut since he normally gets his hair cut about every thirty days and his last one was June 18.  After the play I was surprised to see him outside without a haircut and he said he wanted me to make sure it was all right and I could sit inside and wait.  It was a middle eastern barbershop so I didn’t know what to expect.  The only thing I did know was that I wasn’t going to wait inside. An everlasting memory is living in Alabama and Mom asking Dad to take me and Paige to the barbershop with him so she could run some errands.  He said it was very inappropriate for him to take us so I’ve always felt like they were off limits to women. Cham has since informed me that that’s where men used to purchase condoms before they were sold in drugstores so I guess that’s why Dad didn’t want to take us. Anyway, I certainly wasn’t going to wait inside a middle eastern one. I waited outside for 25 minutes and who should walk out but Cham’s dad!  I was shocked, so all I could do was hug him and laugh.  He was totally scalped. I thought at least they’d follow the old haircut but Cham said the guy understood length one and two.  I guess I should be grateful he chose two! Cham said a long time ago when you went to the barber, they did “foo foo,” where they massage your shoulders and neck and put nice smelling stuff on you.  Cham said the barber didn’t even ask, he just did it. So, I think he found it a very enjoyable experience.  I’ve posted a picture of him with this new do.   He’s happy he won’t have to worry about another haircut until he gets back.  It’s starting to grow back and I’ve gotten used to it, but it was quite a surprise!