Days 16 and 17 - Florence, No Photos Allowed!

Day 16 - Venice - Florence - Pisa

Alas, our time in Venice was at an end, so we jumped on an early morning vaporetto to the train station, and then a fast train south to Florence. The ride was long, but the Handlers listened to a book on iPod and had a nice conversation with the American couple across from them, who travel in Italy all the time and had some good advice to impart.

We arrived in Florence, caught a quick taxi to our hotel, dropped off the bags, and then immediately left to get some gourmet Florentine food.

The reason the Handlers stooped to Americanized fast food was that they had yet another train to catch. This time to Pisa. What's in Pisa? I think you know.

And...well....that's pretty much all there is to see in Pisa, so we walked back to the train station and caught the next ride back to Florence.

Upon returning to Florence, Handler 1 had no real plans for the rest of the evening, so we took to wandering the old city. There's much to see in Florence, like the magnificent Duomo (cathedral).

And the equally spectacular Campanile!

As the grandhandlers had been so specific in mentioning it (repeatedly), Handler 1 wanted to make sure they know we did find the water dispenser.

We continued wandering the city, and eventually found ourselves crossing the Arno via the famous Ponte Vecchio. Being now quite far from the hotel, but near to the place where the nice couple from Palo Alto that we met on the train from Venice said their favorite Florence restaurant was, we decided to try to find it. We did locate it down an alley and had quite a lovely dinner.

Day 17 - Florence

Today we got an early start by heading straight to the Accademia museum. For those not in the know, Florence is big on art, and the two main museums (the Accademia and Uffizi) are famous for long lines full of pickpockets. Luckily, the Handlers had purchased tickets that got us in immediately on our arrival. The Accademia's claim to fame is the statue of the David. It's lovely. It's amazing. It's not appearing in this blog because you're not allowed to take photos in the museum and there are eagle eyed docents hanging in every doorway.

Oh well, on to the Uffizi. This is a much larger gallery, filled with many famous works of art including The Birth of Venus. Once again, no photos, so you're just going to have to imagine the picture is in here (you know it, it's the one with the mostly naked chick on the clam shell) and Handler 1's itchy photo finger.

As a point of pride, Handler 1 would like me to note that we coasted through the Accademia and the Uffizi before noon. That, my friends, is planning.

Florence: Look how beautiful it is on the outside!

Handler 1 really wanted to see the Michaelangelo sculptures at the Medici Chapels, so we headed there next. This was probably the least impressiver place that we visited in Florence, as there really wasn't much there. Handler 1 would love to show you the statutes of Night and Day, but photos weren't allowed inside the chapel.

Sensing a pattern.

We grabbed a quick lunch near the Duomo, then headed through some less nice parts of Florence, to get to the church of Santa Croce which, miracle of miracles, lets you take non-flash photos inside!

Santa Croce is sort of the Westminster Cathedral of Italy. If you're Italian and famous, you're buried there (or at least memorilized there, and is in the case of Dante, who was banished from the city of Florence and died in Ravenna...). Anyways, here's Galileo's tomb!

Having been now inspired by the famous dead,we decided to check out the fruits of their labor. We headed to the National Science Museum, which in Italy is more of a "The History of Scientific Effort" museum. The highlight of the museum are itemsowned and used by Galileo during his experiements. Sadly, this museum also prohibited photography, so we couldn't get a photo of Galileo's telescope.

The Handlers practice social dissidence.

There was one morething Handler 1 wanted to check off her Florence list, and it required hopping a bus to the top of a nearby hill. Unfortunately, the Handlers were about to have their bad luck with Italian mass transit continue. They were completely unable to find the correct bus stop, and ended up trudging the entire way up the hill. Handler 2 did notfind the view quite spectacular enough to justify the effort.

Although we're staying in Florence, tomorrow will be spent hiking in the Cinque Terre (which consists of five small villages clinging to the western coast.

Quote of the Day: "I never realized how much Michaelangelo did. Painting...sculpting...fighting Shredder..."