Firenze (Florence) - July 12, 2011: Getting to, Checking In, Fra Angelicos

4:00AM - time to get up to leave for Florence. We had a 6:45AM train to catch, and with 4 women, it is necessary to allow for about 2 hours before we can get out the door. I figured we could sleep on the train, since we were taking the “slow” train that was four hours long. There are faster trains, such as the Eurostar that get you into Florence in 1 ½ hours, but they cost 45 euro vs the 17 euro per ticket. And since we’re going the least expensive route, slow train it is. First, we needed to take the bus, and thank goodness I found an open newspaper/magazine stand that sold bus tickets.We took a bus to the train station. The bus dropped us directly in front of Termini Station, a man helped us navigate the ticket machine, and then we walked LONG distance through the terminal to the actual train we needed. It was not with all the other trains in front, it was in some oddball location, and I just kept asking men in blue vests which way to go. They pointed. We followed.

This train was not nearly as nice as the last train we took (from Trani). The seats were very hard to sleep in, and didn’t recline in any way. But there was plenty of room.

The landscape was again beautiful and serene. It was hilly and definitely a lot more greenery than what we saw on our way to Trani. It was dotted with lots of stone or brick homes nestled in small valleys, with a little bit of a farm or small communities squeezed together. Often I saw very small ponds, with accoutrements for swimming or boating.

When we came into the Florence train station, the heat was unreal. We were suppose to come out at Piazza Adua, but I couldn’t find it. Mind you, signage is not like in America. It is hard to find places or sites, as the signs are tucked away or non-existent. Sometimes the wording for places don’t match one’s map, or the name of the place is carved somewhere on the building in small lettering. So one must memorize or keep checking a map.

We found the information place across from the train station and got some maps and then headed in the right direction for the hostel. It took about 15-20 minutes to drag our bags there.

Our hostel is location on a beautiful small street, via San Gallo. It is lined with dozen of small shops of all kinds – cafes, an art store, perfumeries, jewelry stores, kitchen and household goods, and pizza shops. Of course, like everywhere else, the streets are lined with cobblestones, but instead of the small 3-inch sized cobblestones we saw in Rome, these streets are lined with large 1 ½-foot cobblestones. There’s less graffiti near our hostel, and less traffic and this time, no bus route on this street. I read that some of the streets are too small for buses, and that would be true for our road.

The room we’re staying in is spacious, with a high ceiling. It is clean, with a new floor, two large mirrors, four beds, a large wardrobe, three small end tables and one larger round table with three chairs. The bathroom is nice and clean. Our two windows overlook the street (which can get noisy from the little bit of traffic that occurs).

The view directly across from our room's window.

Another view - showing the actual window, and the sun just setting. TV set in upper left.

A word about garbage

Residents in the city pay hefty taxes. Part of those taxes goes to garbage collection. On the street, and on nearly all streets everywhere, there are medium-sized dumpsters for garbage collection. These dumpsters have a bar you step on, which opens it, and there you put your garbage. In some cases, you need to separate the garbage from foodstuffs, plastics and then other. From what I can tell, it “sounds” like the garbage is collected every day.

The road we are on is very well-located to the action, without being a massively tourist location. There is no specific tourististy thing to do here, so we are in a quieter, less trafficked place. Yet we can walk just five minutes to the first attraction, and likely as much as 20 minutes to the far end of where the action is. Florence is that small. There are buses, but so far we have been able to walk everywhere within just a few minutes.

This place is stunning. It is so beautiful, I am overwhelmed at every turn. I think I am overwhelmed that some of the greatest artists have lived and worked here, that their sculptures and paintings live on hundreds of years later, and that despite the hoardes of people going through here, the history and beautiful is intact.

Aye-Yi-Yi, everywhere I go.

In our room.

Silly girl.

The street where we will be located for the next 7 days.

Our first day here we are still tired from traveling, but we are told it will be two hours before our room is ready. The young man cleaning our room has some repair work to do. So we left our bags in our room and landed in a small café across the street to eat pasta salad. Catalina and Gaby are barely hungry and only pick at the food. Later, we head toward one of the sites which is just a block away called the Museum of San Marco.

The Museum of San Marco has many early Renaissance master works by Fra Angelico and some by Fra Bartolomeo. Also located in this “museum” is the cell that once housed Savonarola, the crazy Christian-right monk who got rid of the Medicis and their ruling power over Florence and who sponsored the bonfire of the vanities. We saw his itchy belt and robes, his desk, and a painting of him. (Savonarola was finally burned at the stake when the government changed again.)

Back to our room, it was still not quite down, but we sat down on one of the beds and connected to the internet. Shortly thereafter, we crashed and slept for a while.

The Baptistery to the right (note the brass door panels).

Catalina strolling one of the many typical streets. Click on to see larger...note cobblestones.

Another typical streeet, lined with Vespas and Vespa-like traveling devices.