On May 9th we had a long travel day from Piano di Sorrento to Florence. After a final quick cleaning of our rental in Piano, we walked the quarter of a mile to the train station to catch the local to Naples where we'd switch over to the national train line (Trenitalia) to go to Florence.
Not a terrible wait at the Naples station, though as I remember the train was a little late in arriving. Several trips ago to Italy I purchased a ticket from a broker from Tropea to Naples and she booked me 2nd Class. It was a cattle call in boarding, with little baggage storage space. Being new to traveling on their trains I didn't realize there were assigned seats but a really nice couple traveling with their 2 children realized that I had no clue and let me stay in my aisle seat to hold on to my luggage. Lesson learned, plus I found that traveling from Naples to Rome via 1st class wasn't that much more than 2nd class. So from Naples to Florence (direct with a short stop in Rome) we went 1st class. Lots of room, mostly empty with plenty of storage space.
We arrived mid afternoon, found a very nice taxi driver who spoke English and heading to our apartment on the South bank of the Arno. We were located on the Via dei Bastoni just outside the city walls. Our landlady, Rossana Ciapetti, was a teacher also spoke great English, she was very sweet. When we left later that week, she gave Mary a cute little painting of the Tuscan countryside.
That evening we followed the hordes of people walking up the lane to the Piazzale Michelangelo to catch the sunset.
One of the fun things was that a couple were having wedding pictures taken on the step and the crowd was very kind to them in letting them have center stage with out too many photobombers.
Here's the sunset overlooking Florence.
Our days were filled with lots to see, except the David, which required reservations months in advance. Some of the highlights were the Piazza della Signoria with its crowds of tourist and a visit to a sandwich shop that Mary's niece told her about. I had a sandwich with cold cuts and black truffles. I already took a bite.
It was a busy place, but not a long wait from ordering to getting our sandwiches which we took back to the Piazza and ate and watched the other tourists.
We also visited the Uffizi Museum which was marvelous. We saw a painting Mary ( and I really didn't know about) wanted to see as well as the Birth of Venus by Botticelli.
Here's the Medusa by Caravaggio. Very cool.
We also visited the Iris garden which had hundreds of Irises from around the world.
We caught a sunset from the Ponte Vecchio.
And we had walks along the River Arno, climbed Giotto's Bell Tower at the Cathedral and visited the Baptistery of St. John.
Mary on top of the Bell Tower.
The view towards the river and the Tuscan hills.
The gold fresco of the Baptistery.
Lastly, our neighborhood bar, I Bastioni di San Niccolo Trattoria. Great pizza and cold beer.
Next Stop Venice.
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