Firenze, Day 1

Last week-end, being the last one Mark would spend in Italy, the two of us decided to leave the gray every-days behind (as grey as they get in Rome anyway) and escape for a romantic week-end trip to the cultural capital of old Italy, the city of the Medici, to Florence, or Firenze.

The 2h30 train ride proved rather uneventful, except for the 40mn delay of the train (which isn’t an event at all by Italian standards) and the non stop rain following us from Rome. All the way to Florence to welcome us outside the train station J

Once in Florence, just outside the train station we found 2 very interesting things. One, the local McDonald’s (after 4 pm buy one get one free action!) and one of the city’s amazing churches, the Santa Maria Novella, with an amazing arched inner-court and frescos from the middle-ages.

After a brief look however, we decided, also thanks to the very determined rain, to rather find our hotel first, with the rather naïve hope, that the rain might give up in the meantime, and almost as a symbolic start of a nice week-end it actually stopped raining later that evening, the sky cleared up, even the sun paid a short visit, and it remained just as nice as that for more or less all of the week-end.

After crossing the Arno, the river dividing the city into two, we eventually arrived to our cute little hotel (www.relaisilcestello.it), almost on the bank of the river, and even though our window only overlooked some more rooftops, the location of the hotel was really impressive, in the heart of the city, not further than a nice walk away from anywhere.

Our hotel is on the right of the church

In the afternoon, armed with our umbrellas, we started exploring the city. Many small streets, very nice old buildings, ice-cream shops everywhere and lots of churches. We started with the most famous of all: the Duomo, so called because of its praised dome, the first one of its kind built without scaffolding. There’s a small queue because of security check, but the inside is rather empty as most disappointed tourists get out fast to look for the next church on their list. The access to the dome, the campanile (tower outside the church belonging to the church) and the crypt will each cost you several euros, thus effectively keeping poor students away.

Deciding that our battle against the rain was a lost case, we went back to the hotel and enjoyed the nice big room for an afternoon nap before the restaurant booked for the evening.

Luckily by this time it really stopped raining and we could get to the restaurant all dry. The restaurant itself was very nice, with a romantic atmosphere thanks to the Christmas type lights on the ceiling, the very nice and helpful waitresses and the chef who was constantly cruising amongst the tables, asking all the guests if everything was all right. The chef, who was the founder and the boss of the restaurant in one person, belongs with his sons to one of the remaining descendents of the Habsburg dynasty, serving food specialties from all over Europe. The restaurant is also a Mecca for wine lovers from all over the world, every 5 minutes you could see the chef being asked to open a new bottle of wine for some of the guests, with the movements of a true expert and also with the overwhelming love of a father to his son. And what matters maybe even more in the end: the food was… just wow and very filling. From the many antipasti, to the pasta and the “Sissi” desert, we could barely walk home at the end… and fell into a deep sleep.

Coming tomorrow: the adventures of the second amazing day in Firenze, also with more picturesJ

Me in front of the Ponte Vecchio