WEEK 11

We arrived back in Florence mid Monday afternoon.  Anna was stuffed and feeling a little sick, so she stayed home while Jules and I went out to explore the beautiful city that is Florence.
Firstly I had to take Jules to Pino's as I had been talking about his panino's all weekend.  As soon as I walked in I was greeted as per usual, "ahhh Mr Kangaroo!"  Jules thought it was hilarious.
We then covered the main sights such as Piazza Della Repubblica, Piazza Della Signoria and the Ponte Vecchio and then set off up the hill, past the rose gardens and Piazzale Michengelo and upto the Basilica di San Miniato al Monte for the best views in Florence.

The church dates from the early 11th century and is dedicated to St. Minias, a Christian martyr in Florence who is said to have flown up to this spot after his death in town.  Or if you care to believe an alternative version, he walked up the hill with his head tucked underneath his arm!

Most people go to Piazzale Michelangelo for the best views of Florence, but hardly anyone makes the effort to walk the extra 10 minutes to get up here, so it was great to have a few beers without anyone around, especially any loud Americans!

We then went back down to Piazzale Michelangelo for a few more beers, watched the sunset, took copious amounts of photos and then went back over the river, almost ready for dinner.

We stopped off at Note de Vino for a pre dinner glass of wine before heading off to our 9:30pm booking at Ristorante del Fagioli for a much anticipated meal of Bistecca alla Fiorentina.  Anna was still feeling under the weather, so she chose to stay home and watch sex and the city on her laptop!

We didn't even bother with menus, when the guy came out we just asked for as much meat as he thought we could handle.  I think we ended up with a 1.4kg t-bone which we made a mockery of.

We were pretty stuffed after dinner, so instead of going out for more drinks, we opted for the best gelato in town at Grom (I think Jules was upto about 8 ice creams at this stage) and then went home.

The next morning there was no mucking about as tour guide Lachie had plenty in store, first stop was the Pitti Palace.
This gigantic building was commissioned in 1457 by wealthy banker Luca Pitti to Brunelleschi (who designed the cathedral Dome), but buy the time it was completed in 1549, the Pitti family's fortunes were on the wane, forcing them to sell it to arch rivals, the Medici's.

a young Marcus Aurelius

The best part was a series of rooms presented as they were, all heavily decked in drapes, silk and chandeliers, with each room having its own colour theme, ranging from aqua green to deep-wine red, it was pretty cool.

even blokes back in the really old days wore pink!

 

Behind the Palace sits the Boboli Gardens which were laid out in the 16th century and are a prime example of a formal Tuscan garden.  It was interesting to compare it to the Botanical Gardens in Melbourne.

"cypress alley"

Next to the Boboli Gardens sits the Giardino Bardini.  It was much smaller, but more manicured than the Boboli Gardens and also had great views out over the city of Florence and surrounding countryside.

We then went back to Pino's for another ravishing lunch and then spent the afternoon walking around and doing some shopping before home to get ready for that night as Jules and I had planned to get loose!

We crossed the Ponte Santa Trinita and headed into the Oltrarno area to Piazza Santo Spirito for drinks at a very popular locals bar called Volume.  We got there at around 6:30pm, so we had around 3 hours before dinner next door at our favourite venue, Borgo Antico!

Ever since Jules arrived in Florence, Anna and I had been pumping this place up, so I was hoping it lived up to Jules' expectations, and that it did!

The proscuitto, cheese and mushroom pizza, followed by pappardelle with wild boar ragu, all accompanied with a great bottle of Chianti Classico were a real hit and had Jules wanting to go back there again and again and again!!

I finally caved in and bought a rose off one of those annoying little monkeys that hang around

Anna was still feeling the effects of a slight cold, so she went home and Jules and I capped the night off at the popular Lions Fountain which is an Irish pub about 20 metres from our apartment.  Jules was in fine form and tried his luck a few times with one of the many American college girls, only to find himself coming home empty handed!

The next morning Anna was off to school and Jules and I woke with splitting headaches.  However we didn't have time to worry about these as we set off to hire bikes and ride up to the hillside town of Fiesole.  The guys who we hired the bikes off told us that they said we were in for a tough ride considering our bikes only had 3 gears and they were not wrong!

9km up a steep incline was a little harder than we expected, but it was a really picturesque ride and was actually really good to sweat out the booze from the night before.

still a big hill to go!

Jules overtaking some Cadel wannabe's

After a solid hour of underpants saturating riding, we finally reached the top.

Although the views were amazing, unfortunately it was a little hazy, so it wasn't quite as good as we expected it to be, but still glad we did it.  We walked around town for a while, visited a few sites, churches etc. before making tracks.

As you can expect, the ride back down was much easier!  I was going so fast that I even flattened a little squirrel as he tried to cross the road (just kidding!).

We passed through the the town of Setignano and stopped to Jules could have another Gelato and then made our way back into Florence.  We still had a few hours until we needed to give the bikes back, so we rode along the Arno river and into Cascine park where to our delight we came across a vendor with a granita machine, oh mio dio it was as good as any slurpee I have ever had!

We then came home to get changed, have a little rest and then went off to climb one of the finest masterpieces of the Renaissance, Florence's famous cathedral dome.

along the way there was a budding old artist doing a great job

It is indeed a feat of engineering brilliance and cannot be fully appreciated without climbing its 463 interior stone steps.  It was built between 1420 and 1436 to a design by Fillipo Brunelleschi, taking his inspiration from Rome's Pantheon.  Over 4,000,000 bricks were used in the construction, with the final product measuring 91m high and 45.5m wide.

The climb up the spiral staircase is very steep and narrow, I would hate to be claustrophobic and try it!  The final leg - a straight flight up the curve of the inner dome - rewards you with an unforgettable 360 degree panorama of one of the most beautiful cities I have seen!

pointing out to Fiesole up on the hill where we rode earlier in the day

Coming back down from the top of the Dome, you get to walk around the balustrade at the base of the Dome which I think was the real highlight as we were up close with one of the most amazing pieces of art I have seen, second only to the Sistine Chapel.  The flamboyant frescoes by Giorgio Vasari and Federico Zuccari depicting the Guidizio Universale (Last Judgement) were started in 1568 and finished in 1579 and cover almost 3,600 metres squared of painted surface.

It had been an almightily long day, so once we were back on the ground floor we headed back home, eager fill our stomach's with some more good food.

Jules and I ordered way more than we could handle, but it was damn good and really cheap, especially as the owner Stefano gave us a huge discount.  Although he really likes us, it is obvious that he is completely in love with Natalie (actually it's quite creepy), so we make sure she comes with us each time we go haha!

We were getting up reasonably early the next day to head for Isola d'Elba (Island of Elba), so we decided to call it a night, but not before Jules got another gelato haha.