Firenze and the Opera

Today marked our first travel between two cities, a train ride from Venice to Florence in the morning. Of everything involved in our trip, one of the things I was most anxious about was the train travel, in particular navigating the stations. We were up very late in St. Mark's Square the night before, and I had trouble falling asleep, presumedly due to my worry about the travel in the morning. So what ends up happening? We slept through our alarm... giving us approximately an hour to get showered, finished packing and get to the train station. Luckily, we managed to succeed, even with a few minutes to spare. The train ride was wonderful, and my fears were unfounded. Navigating the stations was superbly easy. I only wish that long distance train travel were more well developed in the United States. The ease and convenience makes going to the airport seem like cruel and unusual punishment.


We arrived in Florence and took the 15 minute walk to our B&B, Soggiorno Panerai, which included passing the famed Duomo. More on this later, as at this time we were solely focused on arriving and unloading our luggage. We were greeted at the B&B by its supremely friendly owner, Albena, who showed us a room and then told us she had a second room at another location around the corner and that we could pick which one we wanted. She told us it was a "very pretty room" and she was ever so correct. The second room is also closer to the train station, a plus for when we head to Rome on Saturday. So, we took the second room and she generously helped us move our luggage from one building to the other, while pointing out the directions of all the major sites. Once we were settled, she whipped out a map and marked all of the sites, as well as a number of recommended restaurants and other locations. A tremendously helpful woman who got our time in Florence off on the right foot.


About noon, we set out for the day, with our first stop being the Mercato Centrale, a large indoor market. After browsing we ended up with some delicious choices. Sarah had a slice of pizza (center of picture), I had some type of panini (rear left of picture) and we topped it off with our first Italian cannoli. An enjoyable, cheap meal which we enjoyed in the piazza outside the market.

Our first historical stop was the Medici Chapels, a facility designed by Michelangelo in order to house the tombs of the ruling Medici family of Florence. This was my highlight of the day, with the main room having beautiful statues, a wonderful ceiling, woodwork, etc. Unfortunately pictures were not allowed, and while many people appear to ignore these directives at the museums, we have, for the most part, obeyed them.


Next stop, the Baptistery, a thousand year old building (the oldest in Florence) next to the Duomo. The Baptistery was not originally Christian but, as you can tell by the name, it was converted. The most famous feature of the Baptistery is its bronze doors with 3D scenes designed into them. Following this we explored the Duomo. The dome consists of 500 steps in order to reach the top, which we decided against taking part in. I have plans on getting us up the only 400 step Campanile on Friday.


After the Baptistery and the Duomo, we headed to the Duomo Museum, which includes a number of impressive items related to the dome, including models used by the builders, etc. Our favorite piece in the museum was Michelangelo's Pieta, which a group of art students also enjoyed, as they were sitting on the steps in front of it, creating drawings of the work.


The below pictures are, clockwise from upper left: Baptistery doors, Duomo and Campanile from the ground near the Baptistery, inside of Duomo knave, and Michelangelo's pieta in the Duomo Museum with art students.

Following all of that, it was time for some gelato. Sarah had crema/melon and I had bacio nero, or black kiss. The photo shows our gelato being scooped. Next, after a short rest in our room, we headed across the river to Oltrarno, the less hectic side of town. At the recommendation of our hotel owner, we headed to dinner at Trattoria La Casalinga, a restaurant which we could tell would be good by the line of locals waiting for it to open up at 19:00 when we arrived at about 18:50. It didn't disappoint, some pasta for Sarah and some steak for me.

Next stop was just a half a block down the street, to St. Mark's Anglican Church to see some intimate opera, in this case, La Bohème. The operas are performed (in Italian) in the knave of Florence's English speaking church with a small cast (in this case four performers and a pianist) and a minimal set, and the audience of less than 100 is sitting just feet away from them. We were sitting in the second row. You can see Sarah in the picture, which I took from behind the "stage" (made up of the table on the left and furnace on the right) before the show began. We spent time chatting with Virginia, the girl sitting next to us (a student?), who is traveling Europe by herself staying in hostels. A very interesting perspective, and she shared some tips for Rome, which she had recently left. The opera was beautiful, and was a very enjoyable, but late evening. We of course topped off the evening with gelato (panna cotta for Sarah, cookies for me). The cookies gelato is probably my favorite at this point. So ended our night. Tomorrow...our second and final day exploring Firenze.