Trip from Venice to Florence was relatively short, as map indicates. Under 130 miles and, reflecting the less-than-speedy nature of the trains of that era, a little over three hours.
Arrived in Florence in early afternoon on this date in 1972. We got a room at the Pensione Il Magnifico on Via de’ Ginori near the Medici chapels. It was there I learned something that would take a lot out of our tourism time — I no longer had my passport.
It was the practice then that you handed over your passport to the hotel or pensione and they held onto it for a day or so. I discovered I had misplaced mine or perhaps it had been stolen. I was fortunate that my Navy identification card was sufficient for the hotel. I still needed to get a replacement passport and that bureaucratic process was “interesting.” I’ll talk more about it at the end of the post and focus first on what we saw and did in Florence.
(Kevin and his wife, Debra, have spent “a great deal of time” visiting Italy over the years since. It’s one of their principal destinations and they’re heading back later this month. On a trip to Florence in the 1990s, Kevin said, he spotted the Il Magnifico and “got ridiculously excited. Deb thought I was crazy.”)
Our visit that day to the Uffizi Galleries, one of the most prominent museums in Italy, was unsuccessful. It was closed. Visiting the Duomo, the cathedral, we saw the “Gates of Paradise.” So termed by Michelangelo, they are the gilded bronze doors created by Lorenzo Ghiberti in the 15th century at the Baptistery of San Giovanni.
After dinner, we went to that famous Italian entertainment venue the Red Garter. Walked in and saw the group from Texas again. “Said hi and chatted. Two girls came in and sat across from us. They were Linda and Tricia from Northern Illinois University. . . . Closed the place and weaved home.” (FYI Red Garter is still there! There’s one in Florence and one in Barcelona.)
After several hours on passport duty, we walked to the Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge), a medieval arched bridge over the Arno River. It’s notable for its age and for the many shops built along it, which was common practice long ago. Closed to vehicular traffic, it gets a lot of pedestrians because it connects popular areas of the city.
We used it to cross over to the Piazzale Michelangelo, which was supposed to offer a great view of Florence, especially at sunset. The photo at the top of the post was a little before sunset, but the sun at that angle certainly lit up the Arno.
The view means you’re elevated and that means you’ve climbed up. The Poggi Stairs offer an attractive route. But it’s still a lot of up.
We spent some time in the nearby Boboli Gardens. One of the features of the gardens is the Buontalenti Grotto, featuring unusual 16th century art, some of which are made of stalactites, stalagmites, and sponge-like rocks. It’s different and here’s a gallery.
The Boboli Gardens also feature an “unusual” statue. It’s a 1560 sculpture by Valerio Cioli of an obese naked man sitting on a turtle. Hey, Italy in the mid-1500s was weird, man! It was reportedly inspired by an actual member of the court of Cosimo I de Medici. Here you go.
Our last morning in Florence was at least productive. We arrived at the Galleria del Accademia Museum shortly before it opened at 1000. At the end of a long line, we were pleased to see it move along soon after, but a bunch of folks got off tour buses and just cut in and the line disintegrated into a pushing, shoving mob. Tourists!
Accademia is most famous for the statues by Michelangelo there and the most famous of those is “David.” I took a close-up.
A copy of the full statue was also at Piazzale Michelangelo.
The nearby Medici Chapels featured tombs sculpted by Michelangelo in the mid-1500s for two members of the Medici family. They each feature two figures representing the four periods of the day:
Back to the passport affair. I had been able on our second day in Florence to get to the American Consulate on Lungarno Amerigo Vespucci. (Interesting in that the term “America” was derived from Amerigo’s name.) Learned I needed to file a report with the local police and also get three more headshots of me.
Made the report to the police at the train station. They were going to type out the report, but they needed “official paper.” And I was to provide that paper. I had to go to a tobacco store and pay L500 for the paper. Brought it back to the station and the police typed up the report. Also got the pictures. Went back to the Consulate with everything and they said they wanted to wait a couple of days to see if the passport turned up. They suggested I visit the embassy in Rome on Friday and have them check back with Florence.
On to Rome!