The Importance of Florence, with a memento of Sorrento

My husband J finds hairpins everywhere. In the bathroom, on my dresser, on his dresser, on the floor, even in the washing machine. It drives him crazy. Of course, when I can't find the one I was using I just go get another one...anyways, there is a point to this story. See the first picture? That's a super-mega hairpin turn in Sorrento. So even in Italy, J couldn't escape the hairpins!
On a morning filled with thundershowers (and not regular Canadian thundershowers, these were full-blown Italian thunderstorms) we found out over breakfast that our day trip to Mount Vesuvius had been cancelled. It's a crater up there, and the rocks get slippery when it rains, making it a pretty unsafe trip on such a day. We are both planners and we immediately had to figure out what we were going to do that day. This is how it happened: the man that was serving breakfast (who also owned the hotel) had broken the bad news to us....in body language. He didn't speak any English, but a simple "Vesuvius?" and us nodding our heads led him to start shaking his head and fluttering his fingers as if it were raining (which it was!). So we understood that the tour was cancelled. He saw the sad expressions on our faces and immediately said "Cappucino?" and we nodded our heads and smiled. We could hear him making the cappucinos in the next room and we started thinking what we could do. Pompeii was so small a town that there wasn't much to do, but we new there was a tourist information office just around the corner. When he came back with the cappucinos, he said "Sorrento! {insert more italian...lots more italian....and then} Cirsumvesuviana!" We knew that Sorrento wasn't too far, we just didn't know how to get there. From what we understood, he was saying that we could take the Circumvesuviana Train to Sorrento. The man left again....only to come back with a bottle filled with yellow liquid and he exclaimed "No Vesuvius? Limoncello!" and gave us the bottle as a way of saying "Sorry, your trip was cancelled". We thanked him (thanking people is one of those things you always learn in a foreign country) and went to our room to do somemore thinking. We decided that we would go to the Tourist office, see if they have a map of Sorrento, and then walk to the Circumvesuviana Train station (not Senturio, but Scavi) and catch the next train. For 3 Euro 50, it was definitely worth it.
The train took about 45 minutes to get to Sorrento. The city was beautiful! Ocean front, small town feel, and lots of little shops. Unfortunately, we hadn't read up on the city before-hand and didn't really know what to see, but we spent some time by the water and had a nice afternoon. From what people tell me, Sorrento and Capri are absolutely gorgeous, so you should make a stop there if you're in the area.

We arrived back in Pompeii in the evening, had dinner, and then packed. The next morning, we caught the train back to Naples, then caught the Pendolino to Florence. Ok, I have always heard that the Pendolinos are these fast trains that only travel in Europe, but I didn't know they went that fast! No joke, at one point the train was going 250 km/hr! I'm surprised we didn't either a) take off into outerspace or b) go back to the future.

Our hotel in Florence was right near the train station, so it didn't take long to find. We stayed at the Hotel City, and it was quite nice! Old style rooms, lots of character, and minutes from everything. We dropped our bags, showered, and went to take a stroll to get our bearings.

One of the most beautiful things in Florence is the Duomo. It's a church that looks like no other that we've seen before. It's so big and the streets are so small, that we could only get pieces of it in photos, but it was amazing to see.

Next to the Duomo is a Campanile (tower) up which we went. Lots and lots of stairs, allowing us to continue our Rome diet into Florence. At the top, we got some gorgeous views of the city, including one of the top of the Duomo.

The city's most popular piece of art is the statue of the David, by Michaelangelo. The real David is in the Academia museum, to which be bought tickets. However, before we got there for our set time, we saw the David twice in other locations in the city.

These were, of course, replicas of the statue....but we learned that we really didn't need to spend the money on those museum tickets. I think I've mentioned before that we've decided we're not really 'museum' type people. All the busts and sculptures and regligious paintings were beautiful, but after we saw a couple they all started to look the same. One thing we've heard over and over again is that the Ufizi museum is great, but we didn't go so we can't comment. We can only comment on the line-up....it was loooooooooong.

We made a stop in the Santa Croce (I laughed everytime J said this). The Santa Croce is like a huge mausoleum where important people were buried. People like Michaelangelo, Marconi, Galileo, among others. This place is huge and it was definitely a bit chilling to be in the burial place of such historic people.

J told me about an amazing look-out that he had heard of from someone at work. It was Michaelangelo hill. We had to cross to the other side of the river to get there, and on the way, we saw the Ponte Vecchio. The Ponte is a really cool bridge that doesn't look like a bridge at all. From the outside, yes it's over water so it does look like a bridge. But from the inside, the shops on either side of the bridge hang over the water and obscure the view, so it just feels like you're in another small street full of shops....shops with lots of expensive jewellery.

We made it to the base of Michaelangelo hill and started up the shallow stairs to the top. We were both breathing a bit harder by the time we made it to the top, but the view was so fantastic!

There were even two brides with their grooms getting their wedding photos done with the beautiful backdrop. I will have to convince J that next time we go to Europe, I'll have to bring my dress, he'll have to rent a tux, and we'll take our wedding pictures over again....

After we climbed back down the hill, we went to the Piazza with the replica of the David and sat near the fountain. We'd already been there a few times to people watch. It was such a fun thing to do! We first made fun of the municipal police uniforms, complete with hard hat and purse (check out the awesome pigeon in flight!!):

We even set my watch for 60 seconds and counted all the gladiator-type sandles we could see. We got up to 18 pairs! Crazy!

Our last afternoon in Florence, we went to the Boboli Gardens. I'm not sure how big they are, but these gardens are breathtaking. Lots of fountains, lots of greenery, it made us forget that we were in a European city.

We bought some sandwiches, chips, and Fanta and strolled the grounds. It was a very peaceful afternoon and totally worthwhile.

Oh my gosh, I nearly forgot to mention our big night out in Florence. Our second of three nights in Florence, we decided to go all out and have a big dinner. We went to Za Za, the restaurant recommended in Fodor's 25 Best of Florence...only to see a huge line-up. So, we went to the place next to Za Za. We must have spent about 5 hours there, eating dinner, drinking wine, joking around with the waitor, and meeting a nice couple from England. The husband is one of 6 whisky barrel makers in the world! He made the barrels for the new Robin Hood movie (which we had to watch on the plane ride home "Oh look! There's a barrel!....Oh look! There's another barrel!"), and has made countless barrels for window displays in Marks and Spencer stores, and for the display in the Guiness factory in Dublin. Awesome!!! I think that was one of my favourite nights in Europe.

I've heard that when you're in Rome, it really feels like people live there and work there. But when you're in Florence, it has such a touristy feel that you don't really get the impression that it's a real working and breathing city. I'm not trying to say anything bad about it, but everyone seemed to speak English, so you didn't get that authentic italian feel. However, it is still a city worth experiencing and if we hadn't been run down from Rome, we probably would have stayed longer to experience the true Tuscan landscape...maybe renting one of the villas on the hilltops in the distance...

Next up? Venice!