Sunday, December 24, 2006

Firenze

I arrived in Florence on Thursday morning and Nicoletta met me at the train station. Nicoletta's family has an apartment near the centre of the city and they've been so kind as to let me stay there for a few days. It was great to see a friendly face from Champaign again, and after we dropped the ShapeCam at the apartment we wandered around the city a little.

Florence is absolutely stunning. The weather has been wonderful, so sunny and warm. There also doesn't seem to be a lot of tourists around right now. We wandered over to the Galleria Degli Uffizi to check out how long the line was, and there wasn't one! Not a single person was waiting to enter, so we walked right in. The wait to get in during more popular times of the year can be as long as 4 hours, and at first we thought we went in the wrong entrance. But we were in the right place, so we got to walk right in without having to wait. The same thing happened the next day when I went to the Galleria dell'Accademia to see the David. No line up at all, and only 4 people inside the museum gawking at the statue. So that's been nice :)

Here's the dome of the Duomo:



The Campanile:





Ponte Vecchio:



On Friday morning I walked into the centre and climbed to the top of the Duomo. This is what it looks like inside:





The view of the city from the top is fantastic:





I got a strange Italian man to take my picture:



Nicoletta called me as I was making my way back down, so we arranged to meet up again and eat pizza and gellato. It's been great to have a native Florentine as my very own personal tour guide to tell me all about where we are, what we're looking at, and what each building is ;)

Yesterday we drove north of the city to her parents' house for lunch. They live in a small town that's about 30 minutes north of the city centre. It's a gorgeous area, and the drive there was beautiful! Her mom made us lots of food, and it was soooo good. We barely fit back into the car afterwards ;)

This is the area around the town in which they live (I think its name is "Caselline"):







After leaving her parents' place we drove over to Fiesole. Fiesole is older than Florence; it was settled by the Etruscans in the 5th century BC. From Fiesole, you can get a really great view of Florence:



Here's Nicoletta with the entire city of Florence behind her:



As you can see, the sunset was gorgeous.





Tonight I'm going back up to Nicoletta's parents' place for dinner (so just to be safe, I'm not eating anything for lunch! ;) On Tuesday (if Tuesday is the 26th, I don't know what day it is anymore) I return to Rome for 1 night and fly back to North America the next day. I'll be in Toronto for 1 week, before heading down to NYC for 10 days, and finally returning to Champaign on January 13th. I've spent so much time in Europe this year (never thought I'd be back for a 2nd time when I left last May), and I'm sad to think it might be a while until I get back here again. I've visited 10 countries since last March (not counting Canada & the States). I guess it might be ok to stay put for a little while ;)

5 Comments:

At 8:53 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Our family sure does move around.
Rochelle..enjoy Wisconsin, and best regards to all there.
Jodi..you look wonderful. It was nice to see your smiling face again, and in sunshine. I'm looking forward to seeing it for real though. Enjoy your last few days in Italy and have a safe trip back home.
Love xoxo;>)

 
At 9:51 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Coincidentally, your "strange Italian man" took a picture of a strange Canadian girl!

 
At 7:53 PM, Blogger Melissa said...

Bugaboo--
I love all your photos and stories. When I visited Florence like a million years ago, it was just about my favorite place in all of Europe. I should make friends with Nicoletta when I get back to Champaign.

 
At 1:30 PM, Blogger Jodi said...

Hello! I'm back in Rome. I got in from Florence mid-afternoon today, and did a quick lightning-round visit of all my favourite places here in the city.

Florence was so great. Nicoletta's family is wonderful and dinner at their place was really, really nice. Her mom fed me so much great food & her dad made sure that my wine glass was never empty :) Pictures to follow soon! (And some short videos for those lucky few living in TO & CU that want to see them.)

I spent all of Christmas day wandering an (almost) empty Florence. It was perfect. The churches were all open & free, and some of the restaurants & gellateria opened later in the evening. The weather was great too, no need for a coat.

Tomorrow I return to TO, so I'll see some of you very soon! Hope that everyone (who celebrates it) had a good Christmas. I hope all the others had great winter solstices, hannukahs, and/or days off from working!

 
At 12:28 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

see ya on the 30th mon..

 

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