Florence | Travels through a geek's mind

Nov 13 2012

Eurotrip 2012, Experiences, Photos, Travel

Eurotrip 2012: Everything in one place

Eurotrip 2012: The route (click for more detail)

Reliving our trip in April digitally over the last few months has been amazing. Sometimes I wish I’d taken more photos and other times I wish I had spent less time behind my camera. Either way, I have loved capturing the trip here.

I’ve summarised the posts below in chronological order of events, with the photo galleries (for those days where I could just not get around to writing) below the story of our trip. I hope this helps ease navigating the month long trip! Continue reading →

Tagged Assisi, Chamonix, Eiffel Tower, Eurotrip, Florence, France, French Alps, Italy, Montmartre, Musée du Louvre, Paris, photos, Pisa, Pompeii, roadtrip, Rome, Siena, Site-seeing in Amsterdam, Site-seeing in Paris, Site-seeing in Rome, travel, Turin, Tuscany, Uffizi gallery, Venice

Jul 31 2012

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Eurotrip 2012, Experiences, Photos, Travel Gallery

Wishful Thinking: Photos from Italy

All images by the author: © catterflyworx 2012

Tagged Assisi, Eurotrip, Florence, Italy, photos, Pompeii, Rome, travel, Venice

Jul 23 2012

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Eurotrip 2012, Experiences, Travel Gallery

Eurotrip 2012: Florence, Italy

15 – 16 April: The sites of Firenze, Italy

Continued from part 4: Roadtrip through Tuscany

We wake up to (yes, still) rainy weather and a cold atmosphere. In addition, there is also no hot water in our bathroom, and my dreams of a shower die a shivering death. One of our number is missing as he’s collecting his phone from the police in Siena and the remaining four of us decide to take a self-guided TripAdvisor tour, with yours truly acting as guide.

Following the Florence City Guide‘s Historic Highlights Walking tour, our first stop is the Duomo and the Campanile. Both these structures are very impressive and massive, with constructions having started in the 1200’s. The Duomo cathedral was built with the intent to shame all other churches in the Roman Catholic world – shaming everything that the Greeks and Romans built in their most powerful times, and at the time the design was put on paper, nobody had even known how the dome would be built or supported. Opposite the cathedral is a small baptistry with golden doors depicting scenes from the Old Testament.

A view on the Duomo cathedral with Campanile on the right in Florence, Italy

We continue our “tour”, stopping momentarily in the leather markets and shops to get some gifts for people back home (and because I love the smell of leather). The next point of interest on our itinerary is the Capelle Medicee. These house some of the remains of the Medici family and is home to a lot of their amassed wealth and some interesting relics. The Medicis produced four Popes and financed a lot of the Renaissance in Italy, with staggering amounts of work being commissioned by the artists in the area. We receive an sms from our somewhat lost friend that his train is not too far from Florence, so we start heading towards the Santa Maria Novella train station.

The Campanile in Florence, Italy

We find a gelato store on the piazza in front of the Santa Maria Novella basilica, and decide that this is a great meeting spot. The sun also shows up for a few minutes and we lavish in the sheer awesomeness of sunshine, eating gelato on a random bench in Italy.

Ordering gelato from a colourful shop in Florence, Italy

Eating Gelato on the Santa Maria Novella square in Florence, Italy

Eating Gelato in the sun on the Santa Maria Novella square in Florence, Italy

Finally reunited, we forget about following our tour and head towards some shops and other things that catch our fancy. We end up in the Piazza della Signoria and view the copy of Michelangelo’s David, together with an assortment of other amazing sculptures that are on display. Musicians play in the space outside and we find a few steps on which to sit down for a while outside the mull of the crowd. It’s a Sunday in Italy and the locals seem to take to the streets as badly as the tourists, taking advantage of the little sunshine there is.
From here we head across the river to view the Ponte Vecchio and visit either the Boboli Gardens or the Parco Bardini (I can’t remember which). It offers a nice view of the city and the gardens are immaculately kept.

It starts raining again while we are here though, so we head back to our lodgings to have some dinner and prepare for per-birthday celebration night out for me. We end up finishing four bottles of dreadful red wine and take to the streets of Florence in search of a party. We meet up with some locals who are also enjoying a Sunday night on the town, and we return home at some unholy hour the next morning.

Monday, 15 April
Our plan for today is to visit the Uffizi gallery before parting ways. Francois and I head further North into Italy tomorrow, while the other three are sleeping in Venice tonight. To our dismay, the Uffizi is closed on Mondays and only Francois and I will be able to visit it tomorrow. Instead we head up the hill towards the Piazza Michelangelo to collect the rental car and return it. The view from the piazza is amazing!

The view on Florence from the Piazza Michelangelo at sunset

The view on Florence from the Piazza Michelangelo. (Florence Sunset # 1, by Christian Krieglsteiner)

After returning the car, Francois and I are alone for the afternoon and we stroll through the shops and markets once more. Both my mom and mother in law gave me some money for my birthday and I’m in search of a gift for myself from Italy. I find a gorgeous brown leather jacket and red gloves (lined with rabbit fur) and from here we head up to check into our hostel with a room for two instead of five. We’ve also procured some more stock for our depleted grocery bags and have coffee in a quaint little shop across the street. We have dinner on our bed and find this is the first time since our arrival in Europe where the WiFi access actually works relatively well in our rooms. I chat with my mom in SA (who is very happy to find out we’re OK and enjoying it) and share some of the places we marked off as interesting in Venice with the guys there. We’re in bed fairly early and sleep rather well, considering that there is an entire school booked into the same floor as ours.

Tuesday, 16 April
Francois and I booked our tickets for the Uffizi gallery online and, after collecting our (much smaller) new rental car, we arrive early and miss most of the first crowds in the gallery. We buy a guidebook in the foyer and start strolling through the artworks, starting in Medieval and Byzantine eras, moving into the Renaissance and a little beyond. Sadly no photos are allowed, but it helps to not distract one from the art. The highlight of the visit for me is Sandro Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus, and I spend a good amount of time staring at the immense work.

Sandro Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus, c. 1486. Tempera on Canvas. Uffizi Gallery, Florence. (From sinoorigin).

Our tired feet let us down sooner than we were hoping on and we head back to the car and start our drive North. We are sleeping in Genoa tonight, and we’re taking a route that will lead us along the western coast of Italy.

Continues in part 6 with our drive up the coast to Genoa and Turin, Italy.

Header photo by Deon Joubert.
Florence Sunset #1 by Christian Krieglsteiner. The Birth of Venus by sinoorigin.
All other images by the author: © catterflyworx 2012.

Tagged Eurotrip, Florence, Italy, leather markets, Medici family, photos, travel, Uffizi gallery

Jul 21 2012

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Eurotrip 2012, Experiences, Travel Gallery

Eurotrip 2012: Roadtrip through Tuscany and Pisa, Italy

14 April: Roadtrip through Tuscany, Italy

Continued from part 3.2: Two days in Rome

It’s another cold, wet, rainy and grey day in Rome as we pack our bags and head to Termini station to collect our rental car. We’re sleeping in Florence tonight, but we plan on making a roadtrip of it through the Tuscan countryside and are hoping that we will be escaping the weather a little further North of the city.

This is the first time that I will be driving on the “wrong side” of the road, and I have no idea what to expect. We get the car and luckily it seats five of us, plus all our luggage quite comfortably. The first stretch out of Rome is both the worst and best part of the drive, as due to traffic it moves quite slowly. After this the real test starts, as we’re on a small back-road out of Rome heading North to eventually join up with the highway. It takes a lot of concentration to stay far enough in our lane, without off-roading on the right-hand side whilst changing gears with my right hand. By the end of the day the driving won’t be as daunting as it was at the beginning, though when we arrived in Florence that evening I was absolutely dead tired.

Our first stop is the small town of Orvieto. We find parking quite close to the Orvieto cathedral and draw out our hoods and umbrellas to brave the rain. I am in no mood to bring out my camera only to then try and keep it dry in the rain, but instead grab Francois’ hand and walk around the massive zebra-striped cathedral with him. The rain is relentless and soon we opt to find some shelter in front of the cathedral from where we can view it without getting soaked. The header image to these posts were taken while we were hiding from the rain (but not the wind).

Duomo di Orvieto Cathedral, Italy (by fortherock)

Our second point of interest is Siena. The massive Piazza del Campo is slanted to allow for drainage of storm water, and though we’re sure the tower would offer amazing views of the beautiful city, the rain serves to dissuade us from making the climb. Instead we look for a coffee shop and treat ourselves to some fresh, warm coffee in one of the dodgiest little shops we’ve come across so far. We have our packed sandwiches for lunch in a dreary concrete parking lot and decide to trek on towards Pisa.

Piazza del Campo, Siena (from Visiting Siena)

Our last planned stop on the way to Florence is Pisa. How can one visit the area and not see the famous leaning tower? We arrive late in the afternoon, delayed by rain and the twisty, windy roads of the Tuscan countryside. We remark again that, if it were not for the rain, we would’ve loved to stop at one of the hundreds of lookout points, wine & olive farms and miscellaneous other points of interest along the way. As it happens, the rain served to keep us in the car and make me more cautious about driving too fast in unknown territory.

The tower leans out at a somewhat ridiculous angle, and though it’s still pouring with rain, the tourists (like ourselves) abound to take ‘that’ picture with the precariously balanced tower. This is literally the only reason we are in Pisa and, after having the photos taken and reading some of the informative plaques, we get back in the car to head to our destination.

Baptistry of the Cathedral of Pisa

Leaning tower of Pisa, with tourists, in the rain

The Duoma cathedral, Pisa

The Duoma cathedral together with the leaning tower of Pisa

The leaning tower of Pisa

As we start heading out to Florence, we receive an sms from another one of our friends’s cellphones. He had apparently lost his phone in the coffee shop in Siena, and someone kindly handed it in to the Siena police, who are sending sms’es out to the people he last contacted. Included in this list happens to be his parents, who are understandably sent into a panic back in South Africa. It takes some time to sort out the misunderstanding and unfortunately he will have to return to Siena to collect his phone from them the next day.

We arrive in Florence in peak hour traffic and it’s a nightmare driving through the rain in the dark with Italian drivers who flow like water amongst the lanes of traffic. It’s a rather harrowing experience and by the time we get to the backpackers where we will be staying, I am overjoyed at the prospect of being able to park the car outside and just forget about it for the next two days. We finally check in and are sadly advised that the parking outside is only for permit holders and that we should take the car to the Piazza Michelangelo, where parking is free and safe. It’s however approximately 2km out on the other side of the river, but we’re assured that there are buses that will bring us back into the city. We fire up the GPS again and head to the parking lot, where we spend about 40 minutes waiting for a bus that never shows. In the end we walk all the way back in the rain and by the time we get back, we’re soaked, starving and (I am) quite irritated with the whole situation. We get some kebabs from a store around the corner and get in bed, hoping that tomorrow will bring some sunshine and a brighter view on Florence.

Continues in part 5 with our visit to the sites of Florence, Italy shortly.

Header photo by Deon Joubert.
Duomo di Orvieto Cathedral by fortherock. Piazza del Campo from Visiting Siena.
All other images by the author: © catterflyworx 2012.