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!

FLORENCE, FIRENZE, WHAT’S NOT TO LIKE!

Livorno, Italy
Aboard Regal Princess
Stateroom C512
Tuesday, November 8, 2022
Sunny, 70F

 So many moving parts! First, we had to take a shuttle from the ship to midtown Livorno (5 euro each, round trip) after arriving in port, then board our prescheduled bus ($33 each) for a ride to Florence, an hour and a half ride.  The bus drop off was the worst ever, it was a half hour walk to the old city of Florence and there was no easy way to tell where we were-landmarks, street signs. The "guide" told us there was no where to drop off passengers in the old city. This would be our pickup area too. Yikes! Thank goodness for the old firefighter—he is very good at directions!

Coffee was our first stop, amongst the pigeons.  The man at the next table said some very bad words in English when his wife did not shoo away the pigeons that landed on the table when he went to pay the bill.  He probably thought no one else spoke English. That was funny to us.

Cafe Scudieri

TK 

Janie

The Cattedral di Santa Maria del Fiore (Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Flower) was a short walk from the café.  There are churches everywhere, but this is the most famous.

Baptistery with Cathedral and Duomo behind

Closeup of cathedral

 One set of doors was designed by Andrea Pisano between 1424-1452. The door panels depict the 3 theological virtues (hope, faith, charity), the five cardinal virtues (humility, fortitude, temperance, justice, prudence), as well as scenes from the life of St. John the Baptist. Next week when we return I will take photos of the Ghiberti doors, known as the Gates of Paradise.

Pisano doors

Detail

 We continued walking through markets (meat, leather, etc.), the narrow streets filled with people and Vespas, and onto the Ponte Vecchio, a bridge built in 1345, over the Arno River. Soon after the bridge was built, the local government began renting shop space on the bridge, where mostly foodstuffs, such as meat and fish were sold. However, the stench became overwhelming and the shops were converted to mostly goldsmiths and jewelers in the late 16th century. It took them 150 years to smell the stench?? There are only jewelry shops there still today.

Ponte Vecchio over the Arno River

 

So many jewelry shops!!

Markets and shops are everywhere--this is another very metropolitan city. 

Cooler with meat/Market

Breads/Market

Wonderful vegetables. Look closely at the spiny green things at the bottom right.

The young vendor called them bitter melons in English.

What the heck is that and who wold eat it??

Dried fruit

Charcuterie

Soups and sauces served in the market

Another market

There are so many people and languages and motorbikes of all sizes as well as scooters. People walk in the uneven streets and the uneven narrow sidewalks, and one never knows when a bike, motorbike, scooter, car, small bus, or other mode of transportation will be speeding by.  No one seems to know which is sidewalk and which is street either. We were amazed at what seemed like a very dangerous situation to us!!

Random streets--people everywhere, which is the street, which is the sidewalk??

TK wanted to try pizza at a self-serve place—one orders and takes the pizza to a table. He tried a pizza slice with mozzarella and thinly sliced ham, and I had a slice with pepperoni and mozzarella. It was tasty, the pepperoni strong and spicy. The ham was very good.

Piccadilly Bar and Pizza

Pizza in Italy! 

Too soon it was time to meet our bus, so we grabbed a quick gelato (fruits of the forest) along the way.  Great! There is no place but Italy to buy gelato. America, France, not even close.

 It was dark when we arrived at the ship and we headed for dinner—goat cheese souffle and beef medallions for me—very good. TK had Cornish hen. Culinary delight today was sugar free coconut cake.

Sugarfree coconut cake

We are both looking forward to two sea days so we can get into the rhythm of the ship and sea!! 

P.S. Election Day! We already voted in the U.S. election!

Aside to Friend MJ: Happy Birthday!!

TK’s Takes:  There are thousands of pigeons everywhere and he has seen only two flies since we started in Barcelona.

TK: 14,500 steps

Janie:  15,500 steps