Florence, Italy - Feb 18, 2018

Our first full day in Italy, we woke up to a dreary, overcast day. The birds were still happily singing a very beautiful song outside of our window. We drove into Florence - accidentally utilizing some of the back roads instead of where the GPS navigated us. The Tuscan countryside is very beautiful with rolling hills, beautiful Tuscan villas and very few trees to block the visibility.

We arrived in Florence and found a parking spot outside of the old town Florence. As we were walking, we were searching for coffee for me. Coffee is tricky in Italy and I never really mastered it. Next time, I will know some Italian - at least enough to properly order coffee. I did manage to order 2 macchiatos, but they were really tiny and cute. I could have used about 5 of them. The coffee is very good, with a smooth flavor.

Cute cobblestone street - this was our first of many

A lot of the old cities have walled exteriors with a huge gated entryways. These areas are park of the ZTL (Zona Traffico Limitato) where only those with permits can drive. We had read that you do not want to drive in the ZTL without a permit, as the fines are very steep.

Porto Romano. This is the gate into Florence - compare to the size of that car

Porto Romano

Roundabouts are everywhere - this is one in front of the Porto Romano. I think I will do a complete separate post about the driving in Italy. John did a fabulous job!

Beautiful Italian street

Throughout Florence old city (and the other older city centers), there were beautiful streets that we would consider a typical Italian street everywhere! At every corner, there was another surprise that we would want to capture on our camera!

The doors!! Such cool doors.

My three on the Ponte Vecchio (old bridge) over the Arno river.

We walked the streets, dodging the few cars that are allowed to drive through the old town. They don't drive slowly :) There are also a fair number of motorcycles zipping through. We walked over the Ponte Vecchio - an old Roman bridge over the Arno river. It is lined with expensive shops like Rolex and others. The shop "windows" were very cool. Wooden pieces and shutters locked up the goods when the stores were closed. The store owners would unlock and store the wooden covers during their open hours.

Exterior picture of Ponte Vecchio

   

Inside this gateway, to the right, the statue of David is displayed. The line was long!

Piazza

This picture just captures the beauty of the day. Wet, but still beautiful!

So many cool textures

Piazza della Signoria

The doors!

Peek at Cupola del Brunelleschi.

We continued walking the streets towards the Duomo. It was drizzly and rainy, so I bought an umbrella from a street person. Hadden liked the brownish building on the left in the foreground in the above picture. We were very hungry by this time, so we stopped into a trattoria (or ristorante) in Florence for some pizza. There was a lady at the entryway encouraging people to come in to eat. We had learned prior to going to Italy that they do not eat pizza with their fingers, so we donned knife and fork to enjoy the pizza. Although a lot more work, it was tasty!

Brick oven pizza! Very thin crust - yummy! 

After lunch, we walked the streets some more and found a street market. Savannah is very good at bartering, and the boys both needed a beanie to keep warmer. She seemed to have fun finding the right vendor to buy from. Let me just warn you - she is good.

A funny, but not so funny side note. It was very warm in Alabama when we left and somehow between the two of us, we didn't bring John a coat!! He managed with just wearing 2 shirts everywhere. Florence was a heat wave compared to what we encountered later.

Everything is beautiful

Street market. Savannah bartered for 2 beanies for the boys.

We then went to visit the church of St Mary. The attendant wasn't exactly warm and fuzzy - she informed us that we needed a ticket, even though it was free to visit. We enjoyed the beauty of the place, just the same. Grand courtyard, arches, frescoes with intricate detail that it amazing to think how much time and care was taken to build and paint.

Cool stairs

Amazing detail, and beautiful ornamentation.

Frescoes

The detail and work that went in is amazing.

More frescoes

Side room off of courtyard

The above picture was a side room off of the main courtyard. I loved this space with the lights and shadows playing on the ceiling. Even though it is all made of stone, it was warm and inviting with the soft tones and interesting lines.

Cute, little, old car on the street

Lamppost - the Arno river was running high and muddy.

It had been raining before we arrived and the Arno river was very high, running fast and muddy.

Funny parking space. I am sure there is a story with this one.

I had pinned the location of the car at the parking spot before we adventured off. We made our way back to the car and returned to Susanna's farmhouse in Noce. We just ate snack foods that evening and rested. The kids were hungry and needed more than snack foods. Lesson learned.