Day 17 Florence

Our departure from Venice was silky smooth. Short walk to the ferry stop, a 40 min slow cruise down the Grand Canal and passing under the Rialto Bridge we were delivered on time to Venice Centrale train station. We took a fast, smooth train to Florence and this time had the good luck to sit with a Singaporean family of 4. I tried to give a friendly greeting to an Aussie couple but they were a bit uncommunicative so I left them alone.  

The Singaporean dad was very friendly and had excellent English. He was an electrical engineer that has his own company designing and making components for industrial companies around the world. His son works in finance and has worked internationally all over the place. The daughter is a nurse that has been accepted into a research program for next year. We talked about myriad things but the most interesting was his experiences and pitfalls when getting goods produced in China. The couple of hours on the train passed fast having interesting people to chat to. 

We were amazed that the last part of our train journey between Bologna and Florence was mostly through tunnels that had been bored through the core of mountains. As we briefly emerged from the darkness we caught sight of the snow that had fallen in the area but too soon we plunged underground again. There was certainly no snow by the time we reached Florence. On the contrary, there was blazing sunlight and I abandoned my puffy jacket for a long sleeve T and vest. 

We walked the short distance between the station and the hotel. Johnny has developed a great strike rate with great accommodation. We are in an apartment building but I guess you could say this is a large hotel room with large bathroom. We have two picture perfect views of the city through enormous windows. Aurelia, our host has left us with four security keys and explained the workings of the coffee machine in our room before leaving us with a nice bottle of Chianti as a welcome present. There is also a large and comfortable lounge a few steps away and an open bar. I was thinking this is a bloody silly time to have given up alcohol. 

Priority one after dropping our bags off at the hotel, was lunch. I made the mistake of letting my eyes rule my head and got some very forgettable chips with chicken schnitzel. We will make wiser choices for dinner. 

Keen not to waste a minute here we headed straight for the Ponte Vecchio area and the Pitti Palace. The bridge district was utterly crowded and rightly so as it was well worth seeing.  Though everyone crowded onto the bridge, the best view of the bridge itself was from the bridge further along the Arno and closer to our hotel.  

Even though we promised ourselves not to keep up the rugged pace we set in Venice, we were soon buying tickets for the Pitti Palace. That place was bloody enormous and rich rich rich with artwork. So much gilt! So many paintings and statues! So much  casual nakedness! No I don’t mean Johnny. Gratefully he kept his clobber on. Of course that was only the Renaissance period rooms but there was also the modern wing that Napoleon was responsible for. It was very lovely but in the end we were conscious of just walking past exhibits and barely noticing them. Two hours at the Pitti had exhausted us. 

It would have been lovely to get out into the surrounding gardens but we arrived at about 3pm and the garden access closed at 3.30. In the end I didn’t care what art royalty there was to see, I just wanted to get to the hotel and rest. On the way home we scoped out a restaurant recommended by our host Aurelia, bought some fruit, juice and milk from a local mini mart and popped into a specialist scissor place to get a pair of cuticle scissors. That was the only souvenir I wanted from the trip. 

As I write this. I’m sitting on a pretty nice bed in a lovely room overlooking the Arno River. The sun has set and the lights of the apartments opposite are reflecting in the water. In the distance we can see the Ponte Vecchio bathed in spotlights. An evening chill is settling outside so I have been forced off the balcony and into the warm of our room. We are polishing off beer (non- alcoholic) and believe it or not, New Zealand Border Force (dubbed in Italian) is playing on the telly. What more could I want. 

We had dinner at the Parione restaurant recommended by Aurelia. It had two big things going for it. It was very good and it was just 50 metres away from the hotel. We went past during the day and it looked like a simple nice place, but when we went to ask for a table tonight, we were led downstairs into what must have been a wine cellar and it was quite posh. We started off with a warm Florentine pate and some salamis and hams.Then, Johnny had a huge plate of homemade pasta with mushroom sauce and I had 4 delicious lamb chops with salad and roast potatoes. By the time we left, the place was full and humming. The waiter seemed to cool on us once we told him we didn't want dessert and coffee but we were both dead on our feet and just wanted to get to bed, bed, bed.