FLORENCE, ITALY DOES AN ENCORE!

Florence

Aboard Regal Princess
Stateroom C512
Friday, November 18, 2022
70F, sunny

 Even though Viator, the tour company, never called to give us directions about what to do about our scheduled tour from Livorno to Florence and Pisa from the new port, La Spezia, I finally got through to their office by phone this morning to find that we needed to be at the bus in 45 minutes and that the stop in Pisa was cancelled.  Of course, we were ready in time and off we went to Florence!

Along the 2 hour ride to Florence, the guide pointed out a mountain that looked as if it had snow. That's not snow, it is carrera marble! After we saw this wondrous sight, we saw several factories with huge marble blocks outdoors.

The white on these mountains is not snow!! 

Carrera Marble!!

 After the half hour walk from the bus stop into the inner city, I was on the hunt for sfogliatella. We found the perfect little café that had a cake plate full of this delightful pastry. Coffee “Americano” is not quite like American coffee, but it is certainly tolerable, and we needed a strong dose to wake us up.

Sfogliatelle and cannoli

Sfogiatelle--only 2 euro each!!

You probably have the idea that we love this pastry!!

We stopped at another shop and bought two more

 

Another goal was taking photos of the gilded bronze “Doors of Paradise” on the Baptistery of the Catterdrale di Santa Maria del Fiore. They were created in the early 1400s by the sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti. It over 21 years to make them. The original doors are now inside the cathedral. The current exterior doors were made from casts of the original in 1990 and installed on the outside of the Baptistery.  Several incidents motivated the church to protect this precious work of art.

Ghiberti's "Door of Paradise"
A view of the whole door

Close up of one panel

Another panel

Another panel

Who can resist photographing this church--

Catterdrale di Santa Maria del Fiore

Another view 

Since I planned on actually buying things during the 2^nd trip to Florence, I lucked out.  I found my favorite leather shop and some other items. TK likes the market (mostly meats, fish, vegetables, wines, breads, pasta, and some eateries), so we visited there again.  Outside this market is a straw market with mostly leather goods (purses, bags, belts, pashmanis, souvenirs, Florentine stationery, all in gorgeous colors). The straw market is 3 streets, stretching about 3 blocks in each direction.  One year we were here during the Christmas market—that was wonderful too!

 

Shopping wore us out, so we looked for somewhere to eat.  There are many choices, but TK was ossobuco, so we were looking for that.  We found Trattoria Antellese, a small restaurant waiting just for us.  By the way, the port lecturer told us restaurants had two price levels, one if you dined outside and another if you dined inside the restaurant.  Since it was a beautiful day, we dined outdoors.

Trattoria Antellesi

Janie's fresh macraroni and meat sauce

TK -- I do not yet have a photo of his ossobuco 

Too soon it seemed we needed to head to the bus pick up area for the two hour ride back to the Regal Princess.  Everyone was sleepy.  We arrived back at the ship at 6:15, which meant we were late for our usual table, not a big deal.  Immediately after dinner we returned to our room—I worked on the blog till after 11 p.m. We are both exhausted, but tomorrow is Genoa!  Here we come!