Florence 2

Still no luggage, nor word from the airport; we can only leave them a voicemail and they haven’t contacted us …

After our afternoon siesta yesterday, we went to a less likely Florence museum that turned out to be really interesting. It’s called the Museo dell’Opificio delle Pietre Dure, the Museum of Precious Stones, which sounds like it’s a gallery of gemstones and jewelry, but it’s not! It’s a mosaics gallery. The Medici family in the 16^th century got really into this, and had artisans making portraits, paintings, decorations, etc with carved pieces of precious hard stones (marble, granite, lapis, malachite, chalcedony … you get the idea), which they then inlay together to compose the color palette for the piece. They had some where there was a painting with the mosaic that had been based on the painting below it, and wow! The intricacy and detail of these pieces is incredible. There are still workshops in the city that do these, we stopped in to a few already, the artists being second or third generation artisans in this form.

Because of jetlag, we were both wide awake by 5 am yesterday, so by dinnertime we were exhausted and fading! But we wanted to make sure we got back on track and stayed up late enough, so after dinner (classic Italian: caprese, pasta, wine), we went for a long walk, bought Jeannie a dress, then down across the Santa Trinita bridge and back up across the Ponte Vecchio. Then it was late enough to sleep.

Every day is reaching the mid-90s, but today I believe is supposed to be close to 100, and tomorrow. We were up respectably early at 7, so we were able to get outside before it heated up too much. We walked down to the river again and this time crossed along the Ponte alle Grazie, which took us to the base of a hill that overlooks Florence from the southeast. Walking up a long stretch of hill and stairs, we arrived at the Piazzale Michelangelo, giving us a spectacular view of the Arno and the entire city to the north. From there we could also see a hilltop across the valley where we’ll be going tomorrow: Fiesole.

We ran a few errands to find stores/restaurants and to replace a few more missing items; we’re managing pretty well with minimal stuff. The only thing I’m really missing and that I can’t replace are my contacts. I’m wearing glasses, which is fine, but I can’t wear sunglasses with them, and these glasses are quite old and if they break I’m in trouble! We then had lunch at a place we walked by yesterday called a Tea Room. They don’t serve tea! But the bigger surprise was that the café-style food and wine there were very good (it’s a surprise when you go in expecting tea).  Pasta with pesto and tomatoes, and vegetables with salmon, and we each tried their house wines, red and white. We’ve walked by so many restaurants and little cafes, and it’s impossible to tell what any one will be like without going in and trying it. It makes choosing a place for lunch or dinner a little overwhelming, but also kind of fun.

We’re taking our siesta now and cooling down a little, and will go out later again for dinner and some more wandering. Tomorrow – my birthday! – we’ll be taking a bus up to Fiesole in the morning. We’ve been discussing what day trips to take on Sunday/Monday … the plan had been Venice, simply because it’s Venice, but we learned today that the train fare is high: about $200 roundtrip for both of us. This alone was not the final deterrent, but it got us talking, and as of now we’ve decided to take two smaller train trips to Livorno on the western coast of Tuscany, and to Siena. Both of these trains for both of us would come to about $67, and we’re talking about a cruiseship port and a Renaissance city. I don’t think we’ll end up regretting missing Venice.

Thanks to everyone for the comments and prayers for our luggage. Hoping for tomorrow!