Tag: florence

2023)

Whenever I got to Volterra, as happy as I am to be in it, I’m also dead keen to get out of it too. Not for any qualitative reason, but just to explore new places. I tend to forget, therefore, why first-time guests are always keen to stay in the town rather than move about. Volterra alone will command your attention for 4-6 days, especially if you’re a thorough bugger. Admittedly less than that if you just want to see the highlights. She is also very beautiful, and all you would rather do is chill, then is no better town for that.

Anyway, my point here is that our guests wanted to hang about the town for another day, rather than go on an excursion, and so we obliged them. Niamh and I must have done very little of note in the middle of the day. I quite possibly sat in and played CyberPunk 2077 while the ladies went out shopping. Having said that, I did go start the 28th with a nice walk.

Look at that lighting and sicken yourself with jealousy

The sky was unbelievably clear and the light to shadow ratio on the rolling colline (hills) was as good as it gets. Such a clear view of the geothermal stacks in Larderello in that last pic. You could see as far as Corsica, and I was unsure if I could even make out snow on its mountains. I’d seen photos of that before, but wasn’t sure if it was snow on mountains or distant clouds.

I walked around as far as the steps at Docciola and nearly killed myself by walking up all nearly 200 of them. I needed the XBox to sort myself out after that (any excuse!).

For lunch we did something new, at least – and had a sandwich somewhere different. This time, it was Al Vicolino‘s turn, and it was quite yummy.

It was our guests’ last night, so we took them one of our favourite restaurants: La Vecchia Lira, who change up a lot of their menu, based on season. Apart from one moment on insensitivity from me, the night went pretty well! I too often think that folks have the same sense of humour I have, and that used to get me into trouble a lot more than it does these days – but I do have the occasional slip. Apologies again, Maire, if you’re reading this!

Thankfully the food was on point more than I was!

We went home, suitably stuffed. We most likely got soundly thrashed by the young lady at pool on the XBox and went to bed disgusted.

Next morning, and it was time to see our lovely guests off on an afternoon flight from Florence airport. That’s right: Florence. We’d never driven to, nor seen, Florence airport, so it would be an experience! However, first: to (quickly) show the ladies around Florence. We parked at our usual spot, and took the tram in. 10-12 minutes sees you into the central train station (Santa Maria Novella) and a 7-10 minute walk to the cathedral.

The frontage of the Cathedral in particular has so much fine detail

As much as we take the same route in Siena, it’s even more so. Usually, we fly in by tram, then it’s Duomo > Piazza della Republica > Piazza della Signoria > Ponte Vecchio > eat in the Oltrarno > a quick look at the Palazzo Piti > a quick explore of the lanes of the Oltrarno > gelato > back over the Santa Trinita Bridge > through the Piazza di Santa Maria Novella > tram > home. This was only slightly different. After we’d taken the ladies across to the quieter side of the Arno we had to have an early lunch, due to the ladies’ flight time. We broke our own rules by stopping at a restaurant with pictures galore of its food – it was one of the few places open – and had some pizza.

I seem to remember a lot of salt in the food. Ah well… you get what you pay for sometimes. We travelled the rest of the route and took the ladies to the airport.

You can see a video of this day, plus the day in Siena we had the previous day.

We had to negotiate one of the few tricker highway junctions in order to get to Florence airport. I couldn’t get over how tiny it was! We drove in, got our little parking ticket, said goodbye and had to validate on the way out. There seemed to be just one guy guarding the carpark. It’s so tiny. Anyhoo, we did so and took the tricky highway whorls out of the town, and (eventually) home.

I treated myself to a gelato from L’Isola del Gusto, and had a moment over a pet rock that was left behind by the younger of our two guests.

With the guests gone, and our appetite for more Italian food on the wane, I had the great idea of going to one of the Chinese/Japanese places in Cecina. We drove to the carpark near the train station, and walked to Sushi Queen. I checked Google, and by golly, it was open! Except it wasn’t. We walked up to it, and it looked open. People were busy moving furniture around and rushing between rooms. I walked up and asked them if they were open, and they replied no. ”But Google said you were,” is what I wanted to yell at him, while shaking him by the lapels. But I just walked out disgusted, Niamh following behind less disgusted. I was on a crusade and wrote a scathing review afterwards (I have since removed it).

Here’s the thing restaurant owners: if you don’t have a website and have your times on Google, please update the bloody things when you’re not actually open. It could save people a round trip of disappointment if they travel to your place of business to find it shut. I was annoyed, as it’s a round trip of over 80km.

It turns out that there is another Chinese/Japanese place about 100m away, so that sucked the anger out of me somewhat. So thank you, Sushi Giapponese Tokyo for being open! We ordered a fair bit of food. It wasn’t bad – especially the rice, dim sum and noodles, but as usual we still haven’t fully found our Chinese Shangri-La, so to speak, with the stir-fried dishes. But it was a different flavour profile, and enjoyable… and the staff were really nice.

We drove home, played each other in pool for some lesser championship and went to bed.

I hope you enjoyed this blog. Let me know what you think, or if you have any comments.

Down by the Boboli Gardens (22/08/2022)

You’d think we’d have had enough time on our feet after the Medieval Festival the previous day, but no – today we would be bringing our guests into Florence. As we had already been there a number of times, we would leave them at the Duomo and head off to do one of the things we had failed to do on these numerous trips: visit the Pitti Palace and the Boboli Gardens behind it.

But first: the electrician called! We opened the door, and in stepped a very young man with a tool-belt around his waist. We showed him the beeping alarm and after a quick chat on the phone with a colleague, informed us that yes, it was just a sonic repellant for birds. He clipped the wires necessary to stop it beeping – so I guess that is the end of the reign of terror for the pigeons. Hopefully next time we get to Volterra our terrace won’t be a holy mess.

As Niamh was happy with his quick work, she thought to nab him to wire up the new light over the new mirror in the new bathroom. I showed it to him, and within 10 minutes he had it done – good man! It didn’t have a separate switch, though, so now when you turn the lights on, it’s like bloody daylight in there! First world problems. He couldn’t accept payment then and there, but if I recall correctly, I don’t think the bill was for more than €20! Try getting even just a callout from a utilities guy in Ireland for that price!

When heading to Florence, we usually head straight north on the SP15, remaining north on the SP439dir until we hit larger roads past Montaione. Some of it has nice scenery, so it’s a nice way to show it off. Then we come back via the motorway as far as Colle di Val d’Elsa. However, we took the motorway route both way this time. It’s a little quicker (even though you have to head far south before you can begin to go north towards Florence), and we also wanted to show our guests the amazing countryside of the Val di Cecina and the Val d’Elsa on the way. We had a quick sightseeing stop just 3 minutes drive outside the town at one of Mauro Staccioli’s: L’Anello… one of a number of stark sculptures dotted around the nearby landscapes. This is probably the most famous and Instagrammable of them, due to the surrounding countryside and the hairpin road.

We got to our usual parking spot for a visit to Florence – the CoOp at Ponte a Greve (here in Google maps). It’s free! And you can grab the tram (don’t forget to validate your ticket on-board!) right next to it for a 10-12 minute trip to Santa Maria Novella station in the heart of the city. From there it’s a 10-minute walk to the Duomo.

Here, we left our guests to do their own thing. They wanted to shop and visit an engineering exhibition of Da Vinci’s. Niamh popped into the chemist to get herself some plasters for breaking in shoes, while I grabbed a bottle of water from a Tabbachi. Then we wound our way through the streets of Florence, through the Piazza della Republica and over the Ponte Vecchio.

We were pretty hungry by then, and wanted to find a reasonably-priced, less touristy place to eat. We had a couple of false alarms, before we grabbed a table at Trattoria de’ Guicciardini. Niamh had bruschetta (not pictured) and a nice place of fusilli pasta. I had stuffed pasta in a truffle cream, followed by Peposo – stewed beef in red wine and tons of black pepper. I have been on a quest to find a decent plate of it for some time now. Some pleaces don’t have enough wine, others barely any peppper. It seems to be a dish that’s hard to get right. When I saw the plate that came out, I have to admit I was initially disappointed, as there was an obvious lack of sauce/gravy. But then I tasted it. Absolutely delicious, and definitely the best Peposo I have ever had.

And they know how good it is too. I was halfway through my beef when a short, older lady came out and asked how my Peposo was, and was obviously very pleased at my reaction. I think she was the cook. Good service. If I had one quibble, it would be that our dishes were served according to their order of appearance on the menu. So, Niamh had her bruschetta while I looked on hungrily, then we both had our pasta, and finally I went solo with my Peposo. Served this way, however, you had a better guarantee of your food coming out as it should. Anyway, I would go to have that Peposo again tomorrow, if I could!

We saved some tummy room for gelato after we had visited the gardens.

The Pitti Palace was just minutes away by foot, and we arrived there and immediately trotted for shade. The piazza is super-exposed to the sun. The ticket office was only a few people deep, and we weren’t long in waiting. We noticed that, yet again, the palace itself was closed to the public. One of these fine years we’ll get to see it.

Anyway, we headed in, and I wasn’t allowed the use of my gimbal to shoot video, so I had to rely on my shaky hands. You can see the video farther below.

What can I say? We wandered around the gardens. They are quite lovely, but honestly incredibly warm in August. Additionally, although I’m no gardener or horticulturalist, I suspect there are better times to visit if you want to see some of the gardens within bloom. There were more tropical-style sections, as well as the opulent French-style. Some of it is quite hilly, and so if you’re not a fan of heat, your misery will be compounded with uphill slope or stair climbs. There are taps with cold drinkable water dotted around, however, and decent toilet facilities.

One great thing about them is that you can get some elevated views of the city of Florence, without having to travel out to Piazzale Michelangelo (this is recommended regardless at sunset, by the way – we’ve yet to do it, though).

So, yes – go to the Boboli Gardens – they really are beautiful, but maybe in April/May!

Here’s a short video of our trip!

We were roasting after exploring the gardens, and took a break at the café there. This was a mistake. Go out and find somewhere else instead. The menu was overpriced – this wasn’t a surprise. What was a surprise was how awful the shakerati we bought were. Very bitter, no foam and not at all refreshing. They just threw (bad) hot coffee over ice and served. It took a while for us to get served too, as there was only one overworked waitress on duty outside.

Bowed, but unbroken, we started our journey back to the Duomo, where we said we’d meet our guests. On the way, wanted to grab a gelato at place we had been taken to before – Gelateria della Passera, but it was closed. Wah! Instead we had to head back to Gelateria Santa Trinita, where we had also eaten before (I will always remember that eye-rolling girl – she could have been world-weary professionally).

We caught up with our guests nearby the Duomo. They crossed off their two most important goals of shopping and getting to that exhibition. They had also gotten lost, and – still to my astonishment to this day – not found the Piazza della Signoria, the Piazza della Republica or the Arno banks. On the plus side, they still have tons to return to next time!

The day had gotten quite humid and energy-draining, so we left for the tram to take us back to the carpark. We had a couple of pitstops – one in the CoOp for drinks and goodies, and the other in the electronics store to buy wireless mice and keyboards. By chance, we bought a phone holder for the car. This turns out to have been an inspired purchase – it worked like a charm – who needed a infotainment screen after all?!

I also noticed this phenomenon in (I repeat) THE ELECTRONICS STORE:

The massive coffee section. Tell me you’re in Italy, without telling me you’re in Italy!

We chilled for a short while back at the apartment, tidied ourselves up and had yummy pizza in Pizzeria Ombra della Sera, along with a beer or two.

After it was a sit-up for a little more beer, then bed. And a sneaky pic of our neighbour’s amazing courtyard below!

Yes, that well is functional – people draw from it.

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it. Please add comments and ask me questions – I’d love to hear from you!

A Wet Florence and another Farewell (26 & 27/12/2021)

It was St. Stephen’s/Boxing Day, and I was tasked with driving to Florence. We had a mission: the ladies wanted to buy some gloves. I went with our usual idea of going the country route there, and parking in the Coop Carpark, and then going back via mostly the autostrada. I was thinking to myself “Gosh, wouldn’t it be great to be able to show Lily and Mark (Niamh’s sister and her husband) some of the wonderful countryside, in particular between Volterra and Montaione!” Three unfortunate things occurred, which somewhat spoiled the journey:

The weather. It was foggy in Volterra, then we got further down to a corner of the Val d’Era where it was relatively clear, but the climb began again into more fog. Well…. dang! Then came the rain, which further reduced visibility. It’s a shame, as some of the countryside is beautiful – so reserve it for a sunnier day if you ever wish to explore.
I was perhaps driving a little too quickly. Niamh and I are usually so used to both the road and having no people in the back seats, but about 20-25 minutes into the drive, I was informed that the ladies in the back were feeling queasy, so I had to slow down (sorry, ladies!).
I joined a much busier road a little after we passed Montaione. I took a left onto the route, and saw a huge puddle in the road – a lane wide, which chunks of asphalt aroud the rim of it. I had no doubt that if I had driven into the puddle, I’d have probably hit a hidden pothole – a bad one. I swerved to avoid it, but didn’t properly notice a mini-cooper coming up behind me in the other lane. He was still a little away from me, but made a show of his anger by blasting me out of it with his horn. Almost a kilometer down the road at a roundabout, he blasted me again as we parted ways. I can never get over the fact that Italians are so chill, but put a good number of them behind a steering wheel they can turn into demons!

We got to the Coop carpark in the end, and from there hopped onto a tram into the centre. We were hungry, and somehow all had a simulataneous hankering for pizza, not having had any while Lily and Mark were with us. I tend to lean away from restaurants where the staff are selling seats outside the door, much preferring to let the food do the talking. However, we were ravenous, and the establishment into which we were being ushered had some pretty good reviews (Lorenzo di Medici), so in we went and had our pizzas. They were delicious! In fairness, the service was good and the staff friendly too.

It was damp when we got out, and getting damper. Fortunately, we dressed for the occasion! We wended our way towards the Duomo, passing a few landmarks on the way, both old and new.

Cappelle Medicee – spectacular inside – haven’t been in it yet…

On the outside of the Basilica, at its north-eastern an alternative presepe (nativity scene) had been set up, but instead of a stable, it was a medical facility where doctors and nurses working to exhaustion in surgical PPE. This was a wonderful mark of respect to them during these past couple of years when the pandemic had put us, and them in particular, to the sword.

This is not my photo – it belongs to Firenze Today.

We reached the Piazza del Duomo, and wandered about the front of the cathedral. We had never seen the presepe there, nor the Christmas Tree, so it we covered off visiting Florence in yet another season. You’ll see that the town was pretty busy!

We then wandered to the Piazza delle Signoria. The city still looked great in the rain, and there were no complaints about the weather. I’ve seen videos of Florence’s Christmas lights in the evening, and they look amazing, so some of the following photos don’t really do them justice.

On the way to the Ponte Vecchio, Lily pointed out a shop where they were selling what looked like artisanal gelato. I checked the window briefly, and saw that they were serving the creamy goodness from little sunken tins (I forget what they’re called). I hopped straight in, without checking the awning on the store. I’d made my order when I noticed that it was a well-known brand of coffee (and despite trawling the map, I’m having difficulty locating the brand), who just so happened to be selling gelato in their store ‘on the side’. Too proud to cancel my order, took a goodly sized cup of it away. It was ok – not really artisanal, but ok – but it was still ok gelato, right? Yay!

We wandered over the bridge, all the way over to Palazzo Pitti, and guess what? Well if you’ve been following these blogs for a while, you’ll be pleased(?) to know that we kept up our habit of not actually going in! One of these days, I swear!

Wow – the banks of the Arno were not looking their best!

We were happy walking around and exploring though. Staying on the Altr’Arno, we headed over to the Piazza Santa Spirito. We were overdue a coffee (me, a hot chocolate), and found a place with indoor seating (Café Cabiria), and were promptly greeted by a lady with a Dublin accent! The world is too small. She sounded pretty fluent when she was talking to Italian customers, and had been over here a while. We had a 20 minute pause for refreshment, to chat with the Irish lady and to use the facilities.

Once finished, we had one more errand before the trip back home: the ladies needed to buy some gloves at Martelli on Via Por Santa Maria. It was only a trip of a few hours, but we really wanted to limit the time we would be driving in the dark. Anyway, we re-crossed at the Ponte Santa Trinita and made our way there. The ladies went in. Mark and I waited outside. And waited. And we waited a little more, a little more impatiently. It began to rain again, so Mark waited across the road, by the awning of a fancy men’s shop while I stood outside Martelli.

Then I was accosted by one of those African doo-dad sellers. Listen, I agree that every person needs to make a living, but the hucksterism some of these guys pull-off really try my patience. It began well, and we fist-bumped and chatted for a minute. Then out of nowhere he held out his hand to shake. This is where you back off, or move on etc. What happens here is that they attempt to pull and bracelet over onto your wrist and get aggressive when you refuse to buy it. I refused the handshake and immediately moved away, despite some weak protestations from him. He wandered off, while I joined Mark on the other side of the road to wait some more.

The ladies certainly spent way more time in that shop than we did in th café… not much fun, I have to say, when it’s grey and drizzling. But we bucked-up (glove-buying was our #1 mission after all), and waited stoically. They came out eventually, mission accomplished and very happy – and even a little apologetic. Satisfied, we walked back towards the tram.

We had a couple of unscheduled stops on the way. First, we paused briefly at Piazza di Santa Trinita to admire the conical Christmas tree there.

The one thing I regret this trip (no, not not Palazzo Pitti!) is not going to check out the lights at Piazza delle Republica. I saw videos of them afterwards and they are spectacular! Anyway, we instead continued farther north, and stopped in the vestibule of the Strozzi Palace to check out Jeff Koons’ balloon bunny. We didn’t go into the exhibition proper, as it was beginning to get dark.

Just a peek into Piazza della Republica!

Time for one final touristy photo-op before we boarded the tram. Yet another visit to Florence with too much time spent outdoors. We really have to pop inside some of these landmarks!

Piazza di Santa Maria Novella. Nope, not been inside it either… still so much left to do in Florence!

Mark had to drive home in the dark and rain… not the most pleasant of drives, but we got through it! We didn’t head out that night, but instead we had antipasti bought at La Bottega and the market a couple of days previously. Then Lily made a wonderful risotto with the blue cheese and kale, topped by a parmesan crisp (we picked up everything for this at the market). It was absolutely delish. Below is a photo of an adulterated one: Niamh doesn’t like blue cheese.

Unfortunately, the next morning it was time for us to once again leave Volterra. At the time of writing this blog we haven’t been back yet since, but are looking forward to going some time in May. Our guests were staying another couple of nights on their own, so we were more than a little jealous – but we had to head home to get our booster shots, which was more important in the grand scheme of things.

It was actually quite a nice day in Pisa itself, and Mark and Lily joined Niamh and I for one last cup of something hot and a slice of cheap pizza before we headed into the airport for the flight home. It was at a circular kiosk outside. The coffee and pizza were ok, but the hot chocolate I almost spat out. I had taken one watery mouthful that was barely tepid and left it at that. In hindsight, I should have taken it back to complain, but at the time I didn’t want to end the holiday on a downer.

So, this wraps-up this series of blogs until some time in May. I will have another one or two in the offing, in particular about Volterra being Tuscany’s inaugural capital of culture, so keep an eye out for that!

I hope you enjoyed reading this and admiring Florence’s beauty, even in the rain. Please leave a like and a comment to let me know, and please ask any questions. I’d love to hear from you.

To See a Friend in Florence (12/10/2022)

I chose not to walk that morning, as I thought we’d have a full day of it in Florence. We still didn’t leave ’til mid-morning. There are two main routes to Florence – one takes you through the countryside for the first two-thirds of it, as you head through some wonderful rural scenery, and emerge on more modern roads somewhere between Gambassi Terme and Montaione. We took the other route, which, although shorter in terms of time (just), is a little bit more dull. If you haven’t driven it before, then it’s a fine route, but annoys anyway, because it takes you so far south so you can join the Florence-Siena Autostradale, before taking you all the way north again. At least it takes you past Colle di Val d’Elsa, which always impresses.

As usual, we parked by this Coop. It’s free parking there, and is just beside the tram station which will take you into the heart of Florence in 12-15 minutes. There’s more about it in the video later on in the blog.

This time was a little bit special for us, though: it would be the first time we had taken any form of public transport since we started working from home due to the pandemic – around mid-March 2020. It turns out we weren’t freaked out about it. It wasn’t packed, but there were a still goodly number of people on it, and everyone was adhering to the mask-wearing protocol. I regret I didn’t take any illustrative photos.

We got off at Alamanni (the station for Santa Maria Novella), and it was another 10 minute stroll to the Duomo. Once there, unless you actually work beside the thing, it’s almost impossible not to be impressed by it. We papped our little hearts out!

The incredible Gates of Paradise on the baptistery doors

We noted for the first time that there were armed soldiers outside the bell tower. We neatly skirted around them, and headed to the back of the Duomo. From there, we wandered around some back streets, stopping in a quirky stationery shop, in which (of all things) we bought some Christmas tree baubles. We were hoping to come back in December, and get a little tree for the apartment, so these would do splendidly. Then onwards towards Piazza della Signoria.

We had a look around (we’ve been there before) the square, and then went inside the Palazzo Vecchio to see what could be seen. The courtyard is pretty impressive, and it’s such a huge building. We didn’t have the time to go on one of the tours, as we had a lunch date!

Like myself, it’s impressive from any angle!

We did have time to check out the Ponte Vecchio. That and the riverside were both busy and beautiful!

The Uffizi gallery on the left. There was a Caravaggio exhibition on, and I’m sorry I missed it.

It was almost time to meet my friend. We wandered back towards the square on back streets, bypassing it altogether and heading down a narrow lane to find the osteria: Vini e Vecchi Sapori. It’s tiny on the inside, and seemingly with no space for seating outside. It was also almost completely full, so I wondered if my friend had taken the booking correctly.

I should explain the ‘friend’ part. I had actually never met this guy face-to-face. For years, we had played World of Warcraft in the same guild together, and kind of had similar senses of humour. I had his number and so gave him a call. He assured me he was only minutes away, and, a man of his word, arrived soon after. By ‘eck was he tall! That’s the problem with online friends – they’re like Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates. But within seconds we had bumped elbows (me reaching up slightly), and all three of us were comfortable. He then entered the restaurant and began rattling in Italian – pretty much fluent, which raised an eyebrow. I didn’t know he could speak Italian. I had assumed that, yes although he worked in Florence, he did much of his work online, and chose to settle in a town in which English was spoken by many. It turns out he’d spent many of his formative years in Rome.

Anyway, the restaurant staff recognised him immediately and gave him an effusive welcome, in cajoling Italian. He confirmed the booking, and said that we could eat inside, but that they also had a part of the north-east corner of the Piazza della Signoria cordoned off for diners. It was such a nice day out that we decided to eat outside and people-watch.

We had lunch for almost two hours. Three full courses and a glass of wine. We just chatted about personal stuff, how we found Italy, what we were doing generally, how the pandemic had treated us, and so on. I skirted around my anxiety issue, as I didn’t want to bum everyone out – we were having a good time. Working-from-home inevitably cropped up, and he was adamant he was staying in Florence, even after his boss asked him to work in the London office. He pointed out to his boss that he himself was working in Spain! I lamented that we might not be able to work in Italy, as most employers didn’t want the hassle of having to register for tax in the various countries in which employees were thinking of settling. Even if that country was also in the EU. Not that we are thinking of settling, as our Italian isn’t up to snuff yet, but it’s good to have options. He pointed out that after his employer registered in a few countries, they realised they had the unexpected benefit of now being able to hire people at will within those countries – thereby expanding their market for a potential labour force exponentially. An interesting point.

The food was excellent, but sadly I didn’t take many photos. There were pastas, fried chicken and zucchini, boar stews and tiramisu.

You know you’ve eaten well, when you get up for a multi-course meal, and only feel comfortably full – and this is how we felt. My friend brought us to a bancomat (ATM), as we needed to grab some cash. He pointed out the opening times of the bank – it only opened for 45 minutes after a lunch break that day. Nice work if you can get it, I guess. We got what we needed and headed back towards the Arno for a stroll. He gave us little tidbits of information in his very English accent. I have to admit I was a little jealous of both his skill with Italian, as well as his height!

We headed over the Ponte Santa Trinita to the less touristy Oltrarno, where he promised us gelato that, while may not be the creamiest, was among the most flavoursome you can find in Florence. We struck a south-eastern route at a 5-road intersection and wandered down a narrow lane until we entered a lovely, almost hidden, piazza – so small it could have been called a piazzetta, where a couple of bars’ outdoor seating was stationed. At another end was our destination: Gelateria delle Passera.

We got ourselves some gelato (unsurprisingly), and it was here that my friend pointed out Zabaione for the first time to me. I’d never heard of it up to then, and now since Christmas has passed, I can’t stop hearing about it! It’s a sort of a thick, alcoholic eggnog – thick enough to be eaten rather than drunk – and also used to dunk biscuits into. Niamh got a scoop of that, and it tasted nice enough. To be honest, while Niamh liked the gelato, I thought it merely ‘good’. The portion sizes were certainly small for the money, but the flavours natural and fine. Not as good as L’Isola del Gusto, but maybe I am biased when it comes to my favourite Volterran gelateria. In fairness, the setting in which it was enjoyed was lovely.

Shortly after, we walked back to the Ponte Santa Trinita, and said goodbye to my friend. It was a merry meeting, and I’ve no doubt we’ll see each other again in Tuscany! He did recommend Palazzo Pitti to us. We chuckled and said we were all too unfamiliar with it. We have wandered in front on it several times, and for some reason or another have never either entered it, nor it’s wonderful Boboli Gardens. But we would rectify that this time! Oh yes!

But oh no – we didn’t.

Once again, we wandered outside, and looked at the remaining light of the day, and the queues outside and decided against it, preferring not to drive home in the dark. We took some snaps, and with a shrug of our shoulders, Niamh and I vowed to each other not to visit it again next time we’re in town!

Palazzo Pitti – you can’t really make out the queue in this shot

We decided to cross the Arno at the Ponte Vecchio – photography ensued here too.

We walked back to the train station and got on the tram back to the Coop carpark. It was much busier, as we figured some people were heading home from work (office workers, maybe), or shopping. Everyone was still wearing masks. We took a seat near the front, and an older lady soon sat beside Niamh. She was looking through printed photos, but let the envelope holding spill the contents to the floor of the tram. Naturally, Niamh gave her a hand to gather them back together (Covid bedamned!), and was then caught up in a mostly 1-way conversation in staccato Italian about the older lady’s family, where they were from (Calabria – followed by an explanation of where Calabria was), what they did on holidays etc. It was a lovely encounter, but a shame our Italian wasn’t up to speed enough to reciprocate.

Here’s the video of our day:

The journey home wasn’t eventful, save that Niamh slowed down outside a Chinese/Japanese restaurant in Colle di Val d’Elsa to see if I could snap the opening times. We never ate there in the end, but maybe some other time.

Instead, with bellies still a little full, we had sandwiches from Sosta del Priore.

Finocchiona, caramelised onion and pecorino – yum!

And that was the day that was! Thanks for reading. Let me know what you think in the comments section – I hope you enjoyed the read.

Dedication – In Memory of my Father
I would like to decicate this piece to my Dad, who recently passed away. The last couple of years of his life were rough, as he was coping with Vascular Dementia. He always loved reading these blogs, and more towards the end the vlogs I recorded in Italy. His eyes lit up whenever he saw the old Italian towns, and always had high praise for the beauty and architecture of the places I visited. He never got a chance to visit Florence, and would have loved to have seen David. But at least he got to Rome.

I will miss showing him how much I love Italy, and I will miss him too.

Me and my Dad at my wedding – more than a few years ago!

A Walkabout in Florence

Well, we found a decent place to park in Florence, which acts as an unofficial Park and Ride for line 1 of their tram system, so I was able to bring you this update! Note that it’s photo-heavy. Note also that we didn’t enter any of the attractions, as we’d been in Florence a couple of times before and had already hit most of them.

We probably left a little late, and instead of taking the dual-carriageway route, we went via the Pisa road, and a scenic route. Some parts of it are really lovely, and it offers a much less-stressy approach to the CoOp carpark, but it is a bit longer than Google Maps suggests – maybe 15 minutes longer.

I took some snaps along the way, but Mr. Sun, God bless him, did his level best to screw up my shots, as I was facing him for most of the route.

The carpark is for the CoOp on Nenni. It is completely free, but to get to town, you have to get the tram to the central train station, and walk a little from there to the more popular attractions. You pay for tram usage by time, rather than by number of stops. We selected the base ticket (90 minutes) both there and back, and it only cost €1.50 per person for each journey. What we forgot to do (on both legs of the journey) is to validate the ticket using the machines inside the trams. You run the risk of getting a fine if you don’t. We got lucky.

Anyway, we got off at the train station, and walked through the underground shopping centre and a street or two, to hit Piazza di Santa Maria Novella. Despite spending 5 nights in the city a few years ago, I don’t think we’d ever been here!

Onwards, then, towards probably the series of chief attractions in Florence: the Cathedral, belltower and baptistry of Santa Maria del Fiore. The architecture is stunning, with incredibly detailed doors and columns. It is one of the most impressive things you’ll see in all of Tuscany – really… the outside of the Pisan square simply aren’t as impressive (although they are amazing – it’s just that the cathedral in Florence is a cut above).

The baptistry in that last photo looks bizarrely skewed… blame the camera on the iPhone.

Anyway, having been blown away by that, we marched on to Piazza della Republica. A gorgeous square indeed.

We went on, then, to the Mercato Nuovo and the Fonta del Porcellino. You’re supposed to put a coin in the boar’s mouth, to let it fall through the grate below, and then rub the snout for good luck. While some tourists were attempting that, a beggar woman sidled up and grabbed every coin from the font, before wandering off again.

We were both feeling a little peckish by now, but decided to go to the Piazza della Signoria – really the main square of government in Florence – or used to be in the Medici’s days.

Here you’ll find a ton of statuary, including Neptune, Hercules, a copy of David, moulded from the original, and Perseus holding aloft the head of Medusa. As well as that, of course, you have the main building of government (back in the day at least): the Palazzo Vecchio. If you’ve been following my blog, you’ll notice that it’s a cheap knock-off of the Palazzo dei Priori in Volterra, the design of which predates it by about 300 years. Florence’s palazzo was begun in 1299, but owes its current appearance to the Medici, who rightly thought Volterra’s equivalent looked snazzy. I say ‘cheap’ with my tongue planted in my cheek: it’s an impressive building, and the inner courtyard is fabulous. We haven’t get visited it, and it sounds like it’s worth a good explore, based on what I read about it. Maybe some other time.

What else would you dine on in Florence, but Chinese?! Yeah, it had gotten to that stage again where we craved something oriental, and so gorged ourselves in Il Mandarino. The soups we had (won-ton and sweetcorn) were nice, and the steamed dumplings excellent. But the mains were so-so, with Niamh’s chicken satay not really tasting of peanuts, and my chilli beef tasting more of toasted sesame than chilli, but was still tasty. Our accompanying veggies were nice enough.

After filling ourselves to the tops of our throats, we waddled south through the streets, until we hit the Arno river, and made our way to, and across, the fabled Ponte Vecchio. Niamh stopped here briefly to pick up a mask to go on display with the other mask we bought during Volterra’s medieval festival. It’s a lovely little walk, with shops hanging over the sides of the bridge, all decorated externally like medieval shops. There is a gap halfway over, so you can look east and west along the Arno and take snaps.

The south isn’t as dramatic as the north, but a small explore is recommended, if only to at least see the enormous Palazzo Pitti. We had thought to enter and walk around the gardens there, but lazily we gave it a miss and continued exploring the south.

It was gelato time, and up to now we had been avoiding most gelaterie in Florence, as we had a fair idea it would be sub-standard. We’ve been told that a pretty good rule of thumb is if you see the gelati piled high, don’t go in. We went instead to the Gelateria Santa Trinita, and if you go, you too can be served slightly above average gelato for 30% higher than you’d pay in Volterra, and have it served up by a tall, attractive young lady whose hobby appears to be eye-rolling. Fun times. Still, we could sit on a bench within and it did its job of cooling us down.

We’d begun clock-watching and so decided to call it a day. We strolled back to the north side, to the train station, stopping to take photos. We found a couple of the ‘no entry’ street signs so wonderfully ‘adjusted’ by a dude call Clet Abraham. He gets wind of a new sign, has his changes already cut out and ready to stick to it, cycles to it and sneakily rubs it on. It’s quite illegal, but he’s never been ‘caught’… I suspect the authorities are pleased, as it adds another bit of character to a town already overflowing with it.

We took the dual carriage way home – a road that bridges Florence and Siena. We came out at Colle di val d’Elsa, whereupon the road became instantly familiar. It’s a shorter route, but not as scenic and involves a bit of an annoying rat-run through some of Florence’s streets from the CoOp carpark to get to it. As it was the evening, Mr. Sun trolled me from the other side again!

We didn’t do or really eat anything that evening, but just relaxed and screen-watched. This morning, I got up and had my first walk in 3 days.

You know it’s the end of holiday season, when they start setting up the Saturday market in the main and cathedral squares. Ah well… all good things must come to and end, as they will do this day next week when we fly home 😦