Follow the Ringenberg Road: Our Days in Florence

October 19-20, 2015

From our roof terrace

Our Days in Florence

We arrived in Florence yesterday from Venice. We were all comfortable in our train seats when the conductor came around to see the tickets and let us know that we were in the wrong seats as well as on the wrong coach. Oops. Our bad. We had looked on the ticket to find our coach and seats and they were listed in a different place than the last train, so we missed seeing them. Anyway, it wasn’t too big a deal and we ended up getting to the right coach and sitting beside a young couple from MA who were here touring, also. They own their own Airbnb in New Hampshire and are staying in them while in Italy. They were fun to talk to because they also enjoy travelling.

One of our food sources

When we first arrived we ended up walking around the area of the main train station, and getting a little pizza without cheese, but it had tomatoes and seasoning so it was pretty good. We then caught our next train to the station close to where we are staying. Google earth showed us how to get to our place and we arrived right on time.

This place is pretty incredible. It is a large garret/attic apartment in an old building. It even has its own rooftop terrace. It’s been remodeled, has a small but complete kitchen and a washing machine which we have already used. It’s owned by a woman and her son.

The Duomo (Cathedral)

After checking in we walked around the Duomo area, stopped and bought a sandwich (beef tongue—typically Florentine), and stopped at the COOP grocery for future meals.

We slept well last night, ate breakfast, and then headed out to see the Duomo and the statue of David. You can get into the church with no problem. The place is huge and built in Gothic style. We got tickets to see some other areas of the church like the baptistery, copola, and the Reparata which is under the main church. The big deal was climbing the cupola all the way to the top, where you have a great view of Firenze (Florence). My legs weighed a ton by the time we had climbed the, approximately, 463 steps which went around and around . . . you could almost get dizzy. I was proud of myself that I made it up. It wasn’t nearly as bad going down .

Where we were today--the top of the Duomo

After we left the Duomo, we ate the lunch that we had brought with us and then got in line to see Michelangelo’s David at the Accademia. We only had to wait about 45 minutes. The David is the center attraction at this museum and it is a showstopper, for sure. We walked around the museum, checking out the art, much of which was a special collection having to do with St Francis.

From the top of the Duomo overlooking the bell tower

Then, it was on to the river Arno, which runs right through the center of the city. The area we were in was very busy with shops and people everywhere. There were even shops built on the bridge crossing the river.

By this time, we were ready to head home and get something to eat so we stopped at a shop to get a sandwich to take home and stopped at the COOP to get a take-home salad. We also made a quick stop at the train station to check boarding times on our train tickets which we have purchased for the rest of the trip.

Tomorrow we leave early for a stop in Assisi and then on to Rome.