I promise, I’ll try to wrap up soon… part 3: Italy (cont).

2003/10/22 – Wednesday

My brother and I woke up late. Max was going to come by to take us to the center, and we awoke to his arrival. We quickly got ready to go, and headed out. Max had a few things to take care of, we tagged along for that. Afterwards, we walked around San Lorenzo looking for shoes for Ryan, and grabbed some lunch at a street vendor selling sandwiches with the middle bread pulled out to make room for the beef, they were different than anything I’d had before, and still very good. We went up to Ponte Vecchio, and took some pictures there, and walked around the Uffizi and Palazzo Vecchio which is where the wedding was to take place. Finally we stopped at an English pub in the Piazza del Duomo. We went up to their 2nd floor where they had a small balcony overlooking the plaza, so good view of the Duomo (Santa Maria del Fiore), Battistero di San Giovanni (Baptistery) and Campanile (Bell tower). It was awesome to be able to hang out there, in a place with so many tourists but being with someone who knows the prime spots.

Max took off to take care of other things, and Ryan & I headed up to the Pitti Palace to go around Boboli Gardens. The Pitti was just a very rich family back in the days, and Boboli is their personal Garden. On the backside of the garden there’s some of the old city walls still in existence. We walked around, took some pictures, etc. The gardens needed some trimming here and there, but given the incredibly hot and dry summer, it was in pretty good shape. We headed back across the Arno, stopping at shops along the way, generally heading towards Alberto’s. Once we were out of the center, the adventure of finding our way around Florence without a map began. We knew that in general we needed to head towards the football stadium and the Campo D’arrigo train station, but unfortunately we hadn’t paid quite enough attention upon departure this morning, given our rush to leave – all we had was the street name, which in Florence doesn’t do much good. Most streets only run for a short distance, and they often change names. Most Florentine’s don’t know most of the streets in the city, often even the ones very near to where they live. We got to the train station without any issues, and knew we were close. The only problem was, we didn’t know which way to head. Oh, another thing, my brother – the one who’s been to Italy many more times than me, has to ask me to read the road signs because he refuses to go get contacts. Unfortunately, at this point in time we start heading southeast instead of northwest. Come to find out later we were within 3-5 minutes of being home, if we had made the right choice. We asked the first street vendor we saw, and all the help they could give us was that the road was nearby, but they didn’t know which way to head. After a short while we decide to try heading the other way, but by a different street instead of walking directly alongside the railroad tracks. We finally stumble upon the right street, and in all only had probably only a 15 minute detour.

We cleaned up (having not shaved for the day yet), and waited for Alberto to come home from work. We went to dinner at Grazia’s, with their family and Franco (Max’s father). I seem to recall a lasagna dish, which was excellent. Of course that was only one course of the meal, the rest was very good too.

2003/10/23 – Thursday

Thursday morning we did a better job waking up on time. Max was stopping by to pick us up to head towards Sienna for the afternoon. First stop was San Galgano, which was actually on the other side of Sienna. We drove through some light rain on the way there, but nothing too much to raise a fuss about. San Galgano isn’t much, essentially there’s a church without a roof (built in 1218) and the hermitage with a sword in a stone (built in 1185) – something like Excalibur. In 1786 the bell tower collapsed taking the roof of the church with it. It’s one of the most popular medieval monuments in Tuscany (since most is renaissance), but when we went it seemed very peaceful (i.e. few tourists). Word has it there was a popular music video shot at the church too, but I have yet to track down the details on that.

On our way from San Galgano to Sienna we stopped along the road at what I would call a Diner in the U.S. Of course, the food was good, as it is anytime you get away from the touristy places. While eating, the sky opened up for all the rain to come down. It rained hard. It was starting to let up as we left, and by the time we arrived in Sienna it was nearly stopped.

Sienna, was nice, we mostly just walked around a bit. We had to be back in Florence fairly early, as Max had an appointment to try on his suit for the wedding. We saw the main squares, and church. Sienna charges to go into the church - and more than just a euro or two per person. None of us feel it is right to charge to go into a church, so we didn’t pay. It is a pretty church, but I still think the duomo in Fierenze is the most impressive of any I’ve ever seen. The best thing about Sienna is the view, since it’s literally a city on a hill, so you can see out to the countryside from all around. I really wanted to go up one of the towers, but time did not permit… therefore I require another trip back ;).

After arriving back in Florence, and stopping by the store for Max to try on his kick ass wedding suit (you’ll have to see the pictures of this once I post them), we went home to get ready for dinner. We went out to dinner with Grazia, Alberto, Francesca, Mom, as well as Roberto and his family, at a very nice restaurant nearby. As always, there was far more food than we really needed, but it was sooo good.

Next time, I’m keeping a journal as I travel. Still to come: Wedding day, San Gimigano, the trip home, and more! I’m waiting to get pictures from my mom before I sort through them all and delete unnecessary duplicates and bad pictures, however the whole process might be somewhat slow. To give you an idea, I have about 600 pictures now, and am expecting another 150-200.