Firenze in the Rain

Before we left for our trip, of course we checked the weather report, and thankfully we were prepared for the rain. And, oh, did it rain!

It was a Sunday, so a number of places were closed, but we forged ahead despite all of this. Our first stop was the Piazza Republica and the famous boar. His nose is rubbed clean from everyone making wishes on it.

 We were heading towards the Uffizi Gallery, so we stopped for a few minutes under the covered walkway to take photos in front of the Ponte Vecchio.

 Unfortunately we couldn't take pictures inside of the Uffizi gallery, but we did take a last-minute guided tour that I swear I would have been completely lost without! "The Birth of Venus" by Donatello was probably the most well-known piece of artwork we saw on our tour, but there were a few more recognizable pieces in the collection.

After our gallery tour, we walked over to the Santa Croce church and the Florence Leather School. The school is located in the old monastery of the church, so despite being in such a well-known location, the entrance was hard to find.

 We ended up making plans to come back the next day to buy our gifts, but we  still had a good time trying to find everything in the rain. We were going to head back toward the Ponte Vechhio to look at the famous gold shops, but I had to have Tim take a picture of the rainfall.

 While I was standing there waiting for Tim to take the picture, I looked over and lo-and-behold, there was the Galileo Museum! The sign on the door said it was closed on Sunday, but when I got a little closer, the automatic door opened right up. I peered inside and someone was sitting at the ticket desk, so we went in! It was pretty empty, but was one of our favorite museums of the whole trip.

 AND when we finished up in there, the weather had cleared up!!

 Along the walkways around the Ponte Vecchio, couples have been hanging locks to celebrate their relationship/marriage. I think it is just so cool and was a little sad we didn't have a lock to hang. Maybe one day? (::hint:: Timmy - Return trip??? ::hint::)

 We browsed the gold shops along the bridge for a little bit, and then I asked Tim if we could head back to the hotel and dry off a little. Along the way, we stopped at Piazza Signoria, where the Uffizi Gallery has set up an outside sculpture museum.

 We headed back to the hotel and Tim spotted this sign and had to take a picture...

 As we were passing the Duomo, I heard Tim call out "Arianna WAIT! There's a rainbow!" And he was right, there was a beautiful, full rainbow arching over the Duomo. It was pretty amazing.

And, yes, if it sounds like it took a long time to get back to our hotel, you are correct. We made a lot of stops and when we did get back, it was nap time. That evening we headed to the train station to book tickets for our trip the next day to Venice and then tried to run to the Ferragamo Museum before it closed. We would have made it, but when we walked in the door, a nice sign was waiting to tell us it was currently under renovation. FAIL! We spent the evening shopping and had dinner at an "outdoor" cafe (it had a large tent up to guard eaters from the elements), before heading back to our hotel and relaxing for the first time during the trip.  

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Florence in a snapshot (or two)...

I hope these pictures from my phone tide readers over until Tim and I have a chance to sort through pictures this weekend. Enjoy!

They take parking seriously!

Obviously the pizza was delicious!

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Ciao Roma!

Our third day marked the end of our Roman excursion, but we couldn't leave without visiting a few more sites. Namely, the Roman Forum and the Colloseum. 

Tim and I have different ideas about how to pose in front of the Colloseum...

We had pre-signed up for second tour through Epic Roman Tours, a decision we do NOT regret! Again, our group was only 6 people and
It.Was.AWESOME.

This is the entire group on the way to our first stop, the Roman Forum, the heart of our tour. Here, our guide is explaining how the Roman empire expanded throughout the ages.

 After an unexpected (according to our guide) wait to get into the Forum, here's the central area...

 And this is the "newest" part, the Temple of the Vestal Virgins. I say "new," because it's only been open to the public for a relatively short amount of time.

We also learned the history of the Arch of Titus, which celebrates a, quite horrific period of time in Jewish history. I found two very surprising tidbits about the arch: 1) The Arc de Triomphe in Paris is based on this design and 2) This is one of the first pictures of a minorah and is the model for the menorah used on the emblem of Israel.

 Our next stop was the Colloseum, but the line to get in was around 1-2 hours. Fact: The ticket to the Roman Forum also gets you into the Colloseum. We didn't wait at all! Most people just go to the Colloseum first, whereas the Forum usually has no line.  And that is why a guide is important.

 Of course it wouldn't be a tourist attraction without dressed up characters...

 We spent about 45 minutes in the hot Colloseum before heading to the nearest Open110 stop to get dropped off closer to our next stop.

 Which was the Piazza Navona...

 and the Pantheon...

 By this the time we finished there, we had just enough time to run to the nearest Open110 stop and head back to the train station for our ride to Florence. Unfortunately we got the slowest-driver-EVER for the drive back.

Our train to Florence was pleasant and Tim managed to sleep for 80% of the ride, a trend that would continue for the rest of the trip. Once we got to Florence, we were off to find our hotel.

We wandered through the streets until we saw this sign...

Yep, this was the only sign for our hotel! We even had to be buzzed into the building every time we came back! Here's the first lobby...

 The entire hotel was actually located on the 1st floor (in Europe, the floor numbers start with 0, so what we call the 2nd floor is really the 1st floor), so after lugging our bags up the stairs (Tim's idea, not mine!), we were able to check in. I'm not sure why, but we got a pretty amazing room. It included a four poster bed and this beauty:

 Why, yes, that is a frescoed ceiling!

Of course, we had to hit the ground running, so we found the local bus tour and got ourselves some tickets. Somehow we managed to time it perfectly for a tour up into the Tuscan hills above Florence, to a town called Fiesole.

 On our way back down, we got off at Michelangelo Plaza to watch the sunset over the city...

It was a great way to relax and end the evening...or so we thought!

After dinner and getting back to the hotel, I jumped online to check opening times for the museums in the morning. I googled the main pages for the Uffizi galleries and discovered that, that night was the "Night at the Museums!" All of the major galleries were open until 1am and were FREE! It was 11:00 and Tim was practically asleep, but I dragged him out of bed and we booked it down to the Accademia to see David without (hopefully) hordes of tourists.  Well, we hit the jackpot! Not only did we get in free, but there was probably less than 100 people in the entire museum. If Tim hadn't been falling asleep standing up, I would have gone over to the Uffizi as well!

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"Holy Roman!"

We started Day 2 at a run. Our first stop was the 110Open, an open-top bus tour. We've found that one of the best ways to see an entire city, with limited time, is to do it by bus.

I won't include many of the photos, because we ended up spending some actual time at a few of the spots, but here are some of the places we didn't go, but got to see and learn about on the tour:

1) Vittorio Emanuele II Monument -or- Rome's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

 2) Palazzio Venezia and the balcony (click to enlarge, it's in the center with the flags) where Mussolini gave his speeches during WWII. It's now a museum.

 3) "Tim" is the Italian cell phone carrier. :-)

 After we completed our two-hour trip around Rome, we headed into the Basilica Santa Marie di Angeli, which is located a few hundred yards from the Termini station.

 Based on the exterior, we weren't expecting much from the inside...we were wrong. It was beautiful!

Here's the dome...

 Their organ...

 They even have an astrological clock inlaid into their marble to help tell time throughout the year.

 Tim had a mini-photoshoot happening and got this shot of a rainbow behind the angel.

 After exploring the Basilica, it was time to point ourselves towards the Vatican and our afternoon tour. We had our first Roman metro experience (decent) and got lunch near the city wall. Our tour was meeting outside of the vatican wall and we wanted to make sure we had enough time to find the small cafe.

Once we met up with our tour guide and the rest of our group, it was time to head in.  I'm sure you've heard stories of people waiting hours to get in, with lines winding around the block...well not for us! We waited, maybe, two minutes and we didn't even have reservations. Go in the afternoon, it's way better! Once inside, we headed towards the courtyard, so Jimmy (our tourguide) could explain the Sistene Chapel in detail. 

 Yep, you read that right, he explained it in the courtyard. (This was our entire group...6 people!) The museum has pretty strict rules about the chapel, one of which is "no talking," and unlike other tour guides, Jimmy obeyed them. To compensate, he brought a parchment of the ceiling and we gathered in the shade to look at the details. It was fantastic!

Of course, there are other parts of the museum (to see it all, you would put in 8 miles of walking!), and we got to see some great things on our way to the Chapel.

This here is Emperor Hadrian, the first Roman Emperor to have a beard. Timmy appreciated that...

 And this is Nero's Bathtub. The tub measures 6m in diameter and is made of one of the rarest stones in the world, Egyptain Red Porphyry. Want to know how expensive this stuff is...Bill Gates is the only private collector to have a piece and he only has a paperweight. (A $1million+ paperweight, which he bought from the Vatican, who owns 98% of the world supply).

 After our tour (Sorry, due to copyright laws, photos are not allowed in the Sistene Chapel...Fugi Films paid for its restoration and got all of the copyrights to it), we headed to St. Peter's Bisilica. Here is Michelangelo's "Pieta."

 Tim was more interested in taking artistic shots...

  We left the Basilica and headed out, only to find oursleves some Swiss Guards.

 I mailed some postcards from the Vatican City post office...

 And we gazed over at the giant photo of Pope John Paul II, who just went through his beatification the week prior. There were posters and flags all over Rome with photos of him and some of his quotes. Our tour guide said something along the lines of "Can you imagine how Pope Benedict feels about seeing photos JPII everywhere?" So true...

 We got a picture in St. Peter's Square (click to enlarge and you'll also see our photobomber...)

 We were getting pretty hungry, so we headed back to Piazza Barberini and The Hard Rock for dinner. Afterwards, Tim wanted to check out the Pantheon. On our way, we got a nice surpise, in the form of a parade of Ferraris!  Literally, a police-escorted parade of Ferraris.

It was no surprise the Pantheon was closed, but we stuck around and spent around 45 minutes taking pictures of the building and the square and just enjoyed the Roman evening.

Side Note: If you ever go to Rome, book a Vatican Tour with Jimmy at Epic Rome Tours. He blew our minds with his art and history knowledge and made it, not only informative, but an absolute blast. His Irish accent also helped!

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