Florence, Day Three

Another guest blog post from Jim:

Dear Family,

It was about 40 hours ago I wrote you last, from Munich. I called that “Day 2”. That feels like a really long time ago!

We flew from Munich to Florence, then rode the €6 shuttle bus to the Santa Maria Novella train station in downtown Florence. We could see the Duomo from there and walked toward it, about a half mile, to meet our Airbnb host at our apartment…or so we thought. It turns out Florence has at least two house numbering systems. We stood for 40 minutes at a door distinctly marked #11 Calzaiuoli, but our host was at a different #11, about two minutes’ walk to the north. (Note to Jeff and Nelly: the correct #11 is just north of the Disney Store.)

Alessio gave us an orientation to the apartment. It’s as nice as I hoped. I conked out for a nap while Mary determinedly stayed awake. At 7:00 p.m. (1:00 p.m. Boston time) we went out. We had pizza overlooking the Arno, in a covered but open-air space that doubled as an access route to several parking spaces in an interior courtyard. A rose vendor saw me as an easy mark and yes, I did buy a long-stemmed red rose for Mary for €5. She made a move to put it between her teeth. Oh, but that’s not Italian, is it. As we ate, one of the parked cars was maneuvered out, coming within three feet of our table as it went by. I love this! Florence is a marvel of compactness, mixed uses, small cars, motorcycles and scooters, bicycles, and people enjoying themselves in public and semi-public spaces. The only Jane Jacobs element missing is wide sidewalks—many of them are just barely one person wide.

Most buildings in central Florence abut neighboring buildings. The facades facing the street are continuous from one end of the block to the next. Sometimes there are interior courtyards, but to know this you have to look from above on Google. Fronts of buildings come right to the sidewalk. Buildings are four to six stories high. All construction is masonry. Most streets are wide enough for one car and two narrow sidewalks. Except for retail locations, windows are few at street level; many buildings look like fortresses. The overall effect is canyon-like. You might think it would feel oppressive, but to me it’s more like cozy (cozy, that is, until a police car or ambulance careens by with siren blaring in what is a very effective echo chamber).

After our pizza, we walked across the river to the Chiesa (church) Santa Monaca. This is a decommissioned smallish old church now used as a performance space. We heard a virtuoso pianist, David Boldrini, and a magnificent soprano, Deborah Vincenti, perform favorite arias from operas by Verdi, Puccini, and Mozart. We recognized many of them—we have a CD of Puccini arias we’ve listened to dozens of time. We sat next to a couple from England who travel most of the time. They have in mind doing a six-month American tour on a Harley-Davidson. Our walk homeward was very leisurely.

Our last stop before home was the Piazza della Signoria, which is the open space in front of the municipal building Palazzo Vecchio (built in the early 1300s, with the tower that is the symbol of Florence). A crowd was gathered at barricades set in a big perimeter in front of the Palazzo. Cars were parked with engines running at the door of the Palazzo and policemen milled around. There was a sense of anticipation, but about what? We waited a half hour or so and then a group of about 40 distinguished looking people in evening dress, including an elegant female, emerged. The people cheered and waved, and she waved back. We asked the man next to us what it was all about, expecting some exotic Florentine ceremonial hoopla. What a shock: It was Charles the Prince of Wales and Camilla the Duchess of Cornwall! See the full story, including plenty of pictures of the moment we participated in and of their tour earlier in the day all over Florence, at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-4375124/Prince-Charles-Camilla-sample-Italian-food.html.

The Palazzo Vecchio, town hall of Florence, overlooks the Piazza della Signoria with its copy of Michelangelo's David statue. The original David was unveiled here in 1504 and stood here until 1873 when it was moved indoors.

All that was still Day 2! We arrived home just before midnight local time. I felt very sleepy but missed my sleep window and ended up being awake until after 4:00 a.m. (10:00 p.m. Boston time).

This morning I woke up at 11:30 a.m. local time, feeling very fine physically but not motivated to do anything in particular. Mary slept until 1:30 p.m. We then spent the next five hours in bed talking and undertaking other favorite marital activities. It was very wonderful. We finally emerged in search of a meal at 8:00 p.m., a full 24 hours after our previous meal. This was reminiscent of a trip to Orlando in April 2000 when we both went a day and a half without eating or feeling any desire to eat. Just before that trip I was at my lifetime high weight. In the following 18 months, I lost 30 pounds. I’ve never gained them all back; currently I’m up 10 from that low.

Our meal was lovely. We paid €56 for it plus tip. We had a very leisurely walk back. We sought out the plaza in front of the Basilica Santo Spirito, because that is where we had a restaurant meal with you in 2001. This was the restaurant where I requested tap water to drink and got a dismayed look, and an argument, from the waiter. We saw posters for Opera St. Mark’s. This is at the “English Church” of Florence, still active as a church but, like Santa Monaca, also a performance venue, for full operas. We’ll go to one or two performances on this visit.

We arrived home at midnight. I’ve now spent a couple of hours writing to you and thinking of you. We’re having a wonderful time.

Love,

JimDad