Busy Days Ahead

I woke up yesterday feeling like our time here in Florence was slipping away, that it was almost time to go and we hadn’t seen or done much of anything except eat a whole lot of gelato. I got out of bed and looked at the calendar in a panic, and was relieved to see we actually have around two more weeks left in Florence before we go to Rome.

I realized we have been here long enough though, and done enough, that I was feeling like we’ve been here much longer than we actually have. We really have settled in here in Florence.

Our remaining two weeks here though will be busy ones. We had big plans to see all the “big” museums this week: L’Accademia, Pitti Palace, the Uffizi and the Boboli Gardens. This past Sunday was the monthly free day at national museums, and we were going to wake up early and get in line early for L’Accademia. However, we woke up to cold, drizzly weather and my bursitis was on fire, so we ended up scrapping that plan. And, we had forgotten that almost everything is closed on Monday (it’s hard to find much of anything open on Mondays) so we spent the afternoon wandering around and taking ourselves down unknown streets to see what we could find. We went over to visit the Pitti Palace yesterday afternoon but learned we had gotten there too late to visit – you need at least three hours so the last tickets are sold at 4:00 and we had arrived at 4:45. Sigh.

We had a lovely chat with the ticket seller though, who told us the best times to visit the museums and also gave us tips on where and how to find the best quality gelato! We bought tickets to visit the Uffizi next Tuesday afternoon, and then walked over to a gelateria he recommended (it was fantastic!). We are going to try to visit the Pitti Palace later this afternoon, and will go around 3:30 to be sure we can get in. Brett is actually more interested in the Boboli Gardens, so if the weather is OK he may tour that while I visit the Palace – we’ll see.

On Thursday afternoon we will walk over, stand in line, and visit L’Accademia. We’ve noticed that the lines for the museums seem to be shorter in the late afternoons now so we plan to be there between 3:30 and 4:00 p.m. which should give us enough time to get our tickets and take our time inside. I am excited to see Michelangelo’s David. It has been one thing to see his work in books and photos all these years, but every piece of his work I’ve seen so far has taken the definition of beauty (as well as skill and artistry) to a whole new level.

Friday morning we are heading up to the Cinque Terre for our overnight visit. Unfortunately, rain is still in the forecast so it looks like we will be riding the train between the five villages versus hiking on the trail (the trail is closed if it starts to rain). It will be what it will be, but we’re still excited to finally be going. We’re going to go to Siena one day next week but are not sure which day yet.

Otherwise we are taking each day as it comes. Although I have to watch myself in order to not aggravate the bursitis, we enjoy strolling around the city, checking out different neighborhoods and sometimes window shopping – there’s always something interesting to see. Besides enjoying some gelato every day we usually also stop by the market to pick up something we need or have forgotten. I’m not sure why it never dawned on me before that there is no big modern city out there somewhere on the outskirts – what we see everyday from the beautiful old buildings to the narrow streets to the shops and restaurants is Florence. It’s wonderful.

Our apartment is cozy and warm now that the heaters are on. There is still more pizza, pasta, risotto and bistecca fiorentina to be eaten. More gelato too. I’m so glad we have another two weeks left in this wonderful city!