Florence 6

Ahh Venice … same sentiment, different reason than Dr and Indiana Jones in Last Crusade. We did not make it to Venice, though we tried. Our dilemma yesterday evening and this morning was whether to brave the trains again between yesterday’s stressful day and an upcoming two days in Rome and then getting back to NYC, or to spend our last day in Florence in Florence, which we’d talked through and realized would be nice as well. Both of us were oscillating between the two for a long time, and finally we said we would go to the train station and if we could be sure the train would be direct, we’d go, if not, we’d stay. And as the medieval Catholics would have said, let God decide the victor. Well, the train was direct, and we got through the line to the ticket counter in time … but that train was sold out, as were all the trains until 1:30 pm, which wouldn’t have left us much time to really see Venice. So good try, but a good, solid reason to make the choice to stay, without later regrets.

We started our last day in Florence by crossing the Ponte Vecchio into the Oltrarno to find a pasticceria (pastry shop) where one of Jeannie’s friends from college is doing an internship. Crazy! We think we found it, though the baristas/wait staff there couldn’t seem to understand us; we sat down and had coffee and some pastries, which was one thing I wanted to do while in Italy: have Italian coffee at an Italian caffe. Then we went to two paper/journal shops to get Jeannie a blank book for watercoloring and a set of colored pencils (since her paints are still with our luggage), and ended up getting them from the same store I bought my journal at. We then wandered up to see Dante’s house, before returning toward the Ponte Vecchio for lunch at a pizza shop, and then across to buy an ink and water drawing from a really wonderful street artist who sits at the end of the bridge painting!

We then headed north just past the Duomo up to the Basilica di San Lorenzo, the church of the Medici family. Like the Duomo and Santa Croce, and the Pisa cathedral, it’s a generally cross-shaped cathedral with Brunelleschi-style domes (he actually designed this one). But this one is naturally lit to be brighter inside with an even, diffuse light, and the left-side dome (of three) is painted with the night sky of a particular Florence evening in the 1400s … and no one knows why! And, the entire main altar was decorated with pietre dure!

After out afternoon siesta, we went out again for a few last shopping items before we leave tomorrow. Jeannie bought a pair of rose earrings carved in coral, and I bought a blue-agate cameo, which is an Italian thing, apparently. Both nice items for us since we didn’t come here looking for them. I did realize tonight that the two major colors of backing stones used for cameos (there’s a lot of them at the Ponte Vecchio jewelers shops) are the two colors of Jeannie’s engagement ring ;)  And just a random observation: today the line to get in to the Duomo was twice as long as usual, doubling back on itself across the entire side of the cathedral … and we walked right in the other day!

For dinner tonight, we took another of Rick Steves’ recommendations way out on the west side of town at a place with a fixed menu/price that caters to locals as well as tourists. So a first and second course plus a vegetable with water and wine for 12 E each … and we got tiramisu. Ended the evening with a walk back along the Arno, and another stop for gelato. Another really nice day, and not missing Venice all that much. On to Rome tomorrow!