The Vacation Begins!

Saturday marked the beginning of our "vacation" - the 8 days that Jim is off work!  Sarah (Jim's mom) arrives in Rome on Tuesday (where we will meet and spend time in southern Italy), so we took a few days to get there.  First stop, Florence.  Last time we were in Florence with the Brennans, we made it to the outside of the Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens but today we got to the see the inside.  

When we arrived at the Palace ticket office at almost 5 pm we were told there wasn't time to do both the Royal Apartments and the Gardens, but that we could see a small part of the palace inside - a section they have turned into a costume museum.  It was an interesting look at fashion over hundreds of years and how certain themes repeat...they displayed dressed made 200 years apart together to highlight similarities.   There was also a special exhibit on the American Indian of all things - I rushed us through that feeling we could brush on up on our native American knowledge at home rather than spend our precious time in Florence that way.  The best part of the costume museum was definitely the rooms of the palace in which is was housed.  Ignorning the fashion and just looking at the walls and the ceilings was worth the price of admission.


The Boboli Gardents are massive, so we chose two destinations - the grotto and the Neptune Fountain.  After visiting the Palace Cafe for a quick snack we learned that we had missed the last opening of the grotto, but we ran down there anyway to see if we could catch it open...we didn't but were able to see inside to what we were missing.  

And then had to walk all the way back uphill - to the Neptune fountain...which was actually a little disappointingly thin and small to be the central statue of these huge gardens.   

So far, our experience in the gardens was underwhelming us (and the extreme heat didn't help), but we continued up higher and then higher still, and the views of the city got better and better the higher we climbed. At the top of the highest level we were able to walk to the other side of the hill and were treated to great views of the outskirts of Florence.  Suddenly all the climbing seemed worthwhile or as they say here, Vale la pena!

The girls wanted to go to the same restaurant , Baldovino, with Jim that we had gone to with Laura, Neve, and Meg, so we walked across Ponte Vecchio. One interesting thing that we never knew or noticed was the there is a private walkway between the Palazzo Pitti all the way to the seat of government that was built for the Medicis so that they would never have to be amongst the common people.  The walkway even goes over the shops on the Ponte Vecchio, as you can see.   We walked past the David on our way to the restaurant. We ordered the dishes we remembered loving the first time (the bruschetta, the hummus, and the tempura vegetables) but without the Brennans, it really wasn't the same.  

We began our long walk back to the car, recrossing the Ponte Vecchio which is even more beautiful once all the shops have closed their doors (which are beautifully ornate wooden doors that appear to have been around for hundreds of years).  We drove to our hotel - the Hilton just outside of Florence, our only night this whole trip to stay in a chain hotel, and while we really enjoy our more unique experiences, it was nice to have some additional comforts for a night.