Firenze, Italy

Finally, we made it to Tuscany! As we hit this town after Christmas, the crowds appeared much more tourist filled then our other two stops. The first outing was the bell tower adjacent to the Duomo. Many of the churches we’ve visited throughout our travels allow tourists to climb through long, winding circular staircases to get great views of the town. This was no exception. While many of these call for a stop to catch your breath, typically the towers have a system for “traffic control”. In the past we’ve used different towers for exits or security controls yielding while crowds ascend or descend (similar to a one lane bridge). Not in Florence. In this bell tower you get to meet your fellow tourist, up close and personal. The stairwell was about 3 feet wide for over 400 steps. Picture trying to walk through a doorway in your home at the same time as someone else; now picture doing that 400+ times when people are in full tourist mode (backpacks, cameras, etc). The eyerolls and sighs were understood by all languages. Our favorite was a lady in front of us (wearing high heeled boots, of course) on our descent. For 3 minutes she held up a string of tourists because she insisted on taking a picture with her daughter in the stairwell. This was an anti-Kodak moment: mother and daughter in a stairwell, no other background. After this glamour shot was taken, we quickly realized they were teaching their daughter how to walk. We’re all for child development, but there is a time and place for everything; the stairwell wasn’t a great learning spot unless the family was hoping to tour the local emergency room.

After seeing hoards of tourists wandering from museum to cathedral and back, we decided to chose wisely and only hit a few of the major sights – there are a ton! Learning from the mistake on the Last Supper in Milano, we made reservations for 2 key museums – Accademia dell Galleria (home of Michaelangelo’s David) and the Uffizi. The reservations had us bypass some serious lines in both museums and are the only way to go. We later met fellow travelers who were stuck in the lines – it did not sound pleasant. The art in this town and cathedrals ate just staggering (and can be overwhelming). Using a “less is more” approach was our new tactic; we’d take in plenty of attractions but just be more selective and look for some of Florence’s subtleties.

We had some good evening adventures as one night we came across a struggling musician who rattled off some familiar acoustic tunes and drew a nice crowd of locals and tourists. Another late afternoon we hiked up past the Boboli gardens alongside an old fortress. Our path finally led us to the Piazza Michaengelo just in time for a sunset and a great overlook of Florence. Once again recommendations from some Florence “vets” led us to superb cuisine, which looking back was possibly the best part of the visit here. The sights are legendary, our hotel outstanding (we’d recommend), shopping is great (including major design brands which have local outlet malls), sunsets are fantastic, but food really takes the cake. From the moment we set foot in Florence (gelato after the bell tower) to our last meal (a Panini from a local father/son tandem) our only dilemma was what to eat, not where… it appears we weren’t the only ones. We met people from Hong Kong, the Netherlands and California who all felt the same.

After a few days in Florence it was time for the countryside…