Firenze. Round II

Nothing beats jet-lag like a road trip up to Florence a few short days after returning back to Naples. Right?

Well, it was worth a shot because let's face it, if I stayed at home I'd be sleeping all day and never adjusting back to Naples time. So, despite a way early Friday evening and a Nico kitty begging me to not leave him again, I was up and at 'em early Saturday morning to head to the civilized north with my travel squad for a little Christmas market shopping and of course, a trip to the leather market.

Florence was just as fabulous as I remembered it earlier in the year, even through my ebola virus/cold medicine haze. The clean streets, easily understood Italian, and somehow fading in with the locals rather than looking touristy (me!)  still amazed me.

We checked into our super cute room right by Ponte Vechia and set off exploring. Well, mainly  in search of one of the top panini shops which was delayed when we all piled into the typical European and it wouldn't go anywhere. Seriously. It was like the start to bad joke "2 brunettes, a blonde, and a dog pile into an elevator..." "How do you get it to go? Well, apparently the answer is "have Katie step out." Yep, when I stepped out of it it worked! I had to listen to Cam and Lori laugh all the way down the 3 flights of stairs. Um yeah. I am the one in a knee brace...

Oh well...onward to lunch because my Angry Bird cookies weren't enough on the 4 hour drive up.

And lunch we had. We knew we had reached our destination when we saw i grandi panini heading our way and a line blocking the sidewalk. The best part of this line? On the outside of the shop there was a "self serve" wine bar with various bottles of wine and glasses. Drink and wait- only in Italy! 2E a glass? What a deal! And the panini did not disappoint! So many different veggie spreads, cheese, and meat which made  up for the lack of personal space in the "shop." Oh and did I mention that the brothers working were hot? Totally helps. Chalk another one up for northern Italy please...

Panini in hand (okay, now we looked like tourists) we headed to San Croce square for the Christmas market. Although the market failed in providing much in terms of Christmas things, it was a nice change of pace for the weekly markets down in Naples. The best part of the place? Probably all the German/Austrian inspired food. Oh wait, what am I talking about? It was the cotton candy and hot mulled wine. Of course we were filled with lunch so we decided to make plans to come back for dinner.

Next stop? Eh, wherever we felt like going. It's nice to have already done 90% of the touristy stuff in a city so you can just wander the leather markets OR head straight to the guy you liked last time to see what new things there are. Although I had every intention of buying Christmas gifts for others after the 2 weeks of shopping for me in the states, I somehow splurged with my left over December euros and ended up with my polka-dot leather gloves and two totes. Side note, Nina one of these may be headed your way, but the one that reminded me of you has been the one I've been using. In summary? I guess another trip to Florence is in call for to pick you up another, unused one that is if you like it. Remind me to show you next time we chat.



By late afternoon I had to pull the "jet-lagged" and "injured" cards. Yep. Both. The result? A fabulous hot chocolate and cookie break at the place where the waiter insisted my name was Jenny on the last trip. It was the same guy this time, but he didn't seem to care about our names this time around. Maybe that's because I swear they all know Lori by heart since it's one of the "mandatory stops" when in Florence. Lots of people watching later, we headed back to the hotel for a quick regroup before heading back out in search of food.

Of course. When in doubt, we always leave for search of food.

And food we found. Lots of wine. Lots of sugar. Lots of potatoes and pork knuckles.

The sad part?

We were back to our room, full, and knocked out by about 9pm. I'd like to blame the super early departure...but I can't. We were tired. Plain and simple.

Day 2 was pretty much more of the same- food (breakfast a place that had been around for 100 years and served scrambled eggs! and the most fabulous biscotti place) and this time trekking around the Piazza Pitti side of the bridge in search of the "Unusual Market." It was different, once we found it, but not so much unusual. Local shops had come together in a hall with small booths to sell their items. Had I not been so over dealing with crowds at this point or feeling exhausted it may have been fun. The next market we ran into was fun. Outside in a square with trees all around booths of primarily "farmer's market" types of goods stood: honey, oil, sweets, bread, jewelry, clothes, flowers.

With the south calling, we decided to get a move on to get back at a decent hour for work the next day. Plugging "home" into the GPS lead us even further into uncharted areas of Florence but it was beautiful in ways that only a single lane road surrounded by concrete walls can be through a vineyard. And a stop an autogrill. Of course!

Firenze: The Rest

Sunday morning, still sick, I got up. Why? I wanted to see enough of the city to get a taste of it so if by some chance I never make it back I'd be okay with it. Besides, right out of the shower, medicated, and caffeinated I had a good 2 hours in me before the second crash. Two hours is plenty of time to go exploring.

The destination? The Uffizi.

Bonus points if we got there before the lines. And we did. Yay for not making a reservation so we could walk right in! Of course when you're there you need to behave yourself even if there are floating cherub heads, creepy looking guys, and you run into one of your coworkers. But in all seriousness, Botticelli's The Birth of Venus was absoluetly beautiful and even if I wasn't needing a rest, I still would have sat in the room to watch it.

After making our way through the galleries, we met the rest of our group for some retail therapy and lunch. Then? Oh you better believe it was nap time! But this time? I managed to get up for dinner at a delightful little place with the most fabulous sage ravilolis. They really were fabulous, despite me only eating a few of them. I had to save room for "adult milk and cookies" and let me tell you, I'm sure glad I did! Hands down the best biscotti I've had here in Italy. 

Monday, our last day, kicked off with trek back out to the Duomo. And then up 463 steps. I started off counting them, but Lori pointed out that they had already been counted so why count them? Just one of the many reasons I keep her around...even when I'm sick! Those stairs were sure steep! And spirally. And heart pumping...but all totally worth the early morning workout.

By the time we reached the base of the cupola, we were just below where the paintings started and the morning prayers and chants echoed upwards to our ears. It was truely an amazing experience and it took some time for us to peel ourselves away and press onward higher up. Within the next hundred steps, we could tell we were within the dome, as the steps became even steeper and now curved. All I know is, I'm thankful for those steep stairs in my house that keep me in continual training for these tower adventures I seem to always find for myself.

The view from the top was fabulous: the morning sun reflecting off the city, vendors slowing setting up shop, the sound that a city (no matter how large) has early in the morning. Although we weren't the only crazies waking up to get a head start on the touristy places, there were few others which made it even more enjoyable. The rails were clear to just lean over and take in the city.

All in all? Not a bad way to finish the trip! True the trip wasn't exactly was I though it would be, and  I'm sure some of my memories are slightly skewed on account of my cold and cold meds but if I could enjoy the company and the location in um, less than ideal situation? I guess I'll just have to head back north one of these weekends and take in the rest of the city.

Firenze at Sunrise

Saturday morning arrived too quickly after Friday night. Guess that's what happens when you're knocked out with cold meds. As promised, Lori got up with me to trek out to watch the sun come up over the city. We headed out in the direction of the Duomo, passing through Piazza della Signoria which was now empty of the performers, artists, and crowds from the night before. Piazza del Duomo wasn't much different and the empty piazza made the majestic building even more impressive while the sunlight started to illuminate the green and white building blocks.

With the sun still rising, we booked it on over to the Arno River to watch the sun from Ponte Vecchio. Although it had been rather impressive the night before with the lights reflecting off the water and the moon in the sky, I'm a sunrise sort of girl and the bridge reflecting back in the water made for an incredible photoshoot while birds flew low along the water. It also made us regret that our running gear had been left at home.

Tummies begging for food, we hoped that some of the coffee bars we had passed on our early walk had finally opened. 8am really isn't that early, especially in a town that was closed up by 11pm. You think that would be an easy task...ha. We finally found a place and booked it back to the apartment, in hopes that water was turned back on. It was! Chalk one up to computer based controls.

The rest of the morning was spent walking around the city, checking out shops, and then setteling into a breeze way for a light lunch and wine. Best part? There were blankets on the chairs which I wrapped myself up in because the heaters just weren't enough. Our waiter, ever so talkative, introduced himself and we introduced ourselves. Well, we tried. By this point of my day, the voice was nearly gone, my head nearly exploding with pressure, and the meds weren't helping. Either he didn't hear me or he didn't care because from that point on I was called Jennifer. By two sips into my wine I didn't even care. I didn't care that the extremely good looking guy changing the propane tank was right there either. The rest of the table sure did though- snapping pictures of "the table" or "Juan the Gnome" when really focusing on him.

Jennifer at this point was done. With a little food in my belly, an apartment key in hand, and the promise to the others I knew where the apartment was (I was the one who found it the night before!) I headed back to crash. And crash I did. 5 hours later I woke up only to decide that the fabulous dinner out was going to take place without me. So, so sad. Luckily they had tracked down star cookies for me that afternoon and I woke up to find them in the kitchen! No. Not quite the same dinner that the others had with their fabulous wine and scrumptious food...but what was the point if I couldn't taste anything?

Destination: Firenze

That's right. Firenze is what's on the map, but you're probably more familiar with the name- Florence. Why the rest of the world calls it something so completely different than what the Italians do? Well, that's a question I still haven't quite figured out but that wasn't going to stop my girl's weekend get-a-way for a little shopping and wine. Lots of wine.

The wine began flowing as soon as we boarded the train downtown Naples and shuffled ourselves around to be near each other. In the process the older gentleman who had already told a few of us that we're beautiful was soon surrounded by the 4 of us and sharing our wine. Before we even hit Rome, he had given us his phone number and address and asked for our numbers. Did I mention he spoke very little English? This was all very entertaining not only to me, already medicated with those lovely orange capsules for major sinus issues and an achy body, but also to the other passengers in our car.

What wasn't entertaining, well according to the ticket guy, was the fact that our new friend "although very nice, no ticket is a problem." The fine for not having a ticket? 250Euro. Our friend didn't seem too concerned though as he had no intention to pay it.

Within the first steps out of the train station, I could tell that the city in front of me would quickly become one of "my favorites:" the brick buildings, clean narrow streets, the unique shops, people walking along the streets, traffic looking semi organized all greeted me. And our apartment for the weekend? So stinking cute tucked away off one of the main squares, complete with terrace and intricate architecture revealing the building's past life as a convent.

After a quick power outage and water outage, we headed on out to track down food and to introduce me to the city as I was the only one in the group who hadn't been there. Exhausted but fearful my cold would take more of a hold over night, I pressed on to start exploring the town. And let me tell you- Florence at night is beautiful! Cold, but beautiful.