In Italy (and other places in the world), today's date is 20-10-2010. That was fun to realize this morning.
Today we attempted to start a tradition which I'm not sure we'll keep too well, although I'd like to try. We got up and went for a run along the Arno. Its a pretty good place for running except for crazy roundabouts that we had to negotiate. And it involved running, which isn't my preferred form of exercise. But its a good way to see more of the city and makes up for the lack of hiking we're doing these days.
It was raining out when we were ready to start our day as tourists so we changed our original plans and decided to visit some museums. We walked by the Accademia Gallery but the line was around the block. Instead, we went to the nearby Museum of San Marco where we got reservations for the Accademia for another day. The San Marco museum was pretty interesting: it has the "world's best" collection of Fra Angelica paintings (as well as paintings by other artists). Of more interest to us, the museum is located in the San Marco monastery and we were able to visit all the monastery's living quarters (no longer in use). Each of the rooms had a biblical scene fresco painted by Fra Angelica which was the source of "entertainment" for the monks living there when they went to their rooms at night, giving them something to think and pray about. No "Jersey Shore" back then...
Afterwards we had lunch at another one of the cafeteria-style places we've been enjoying lately. Its pricier than a panini or slice of pizza, but who can turn down a lunch platter of fresh pesto lasagne, grilled artichokes and eggplant, and fried meatballs?
We went to visit another nearby museum, but it had already closed for the day. Instead, we went to investigate the building with the green copper roof that we saw from Piazzale Michelangelo yesterday. What we "discovered" was the Florence Synagogue (quotations because apparently I've been here before). We took a tour of the beautiful interior (it reminded me a lot of the synagogue I saw in Budapest, with walls entirely covered in intricate hand-painted designs), and then visited the small museum upstairs. At this point, the sun had come out and the skies were blue. We saved other museums for another day and did some (a lot of) walking. We walked down to the Piazza Sante Croce, got some gelato nearby and found a small public park to sit in while we were in the gelato-zone. Then we made our way around the perimeter of the city, walking along some of the major arterials. On the way we saw the Four Seasons Hotel, which obviously took the space of an old palazzo - maybe more than one. The place is huge (more that an entire city block, it seems), and seems to have its own botanical garden!
Walking along the major arterials might seem like it would be unpleasant, but it was actually nice to be away from all the tourists, and to walk along a bustling street sort of reminiscent of the main street in Geneva or the Champs D'Elysees (minus the fancy shops). Its also a tree-line street with curb-separated red-pavement bike lanes. We made our way through the major Piazza della Liberta where we saw the Arco Di Trionfo and the Porta San Gallo. Further down the road we made it to the Fortezza da Basso and the Giardino della Fortezza. We walked around the garden for a while (couldn't go inside the fort), and then meandered through the city to get home.We (I) cooked dinner at home, we (Mike) did the dishes, and then we took a walk down to the Ponte Vecchio and to the Duomo at night. We got some good nighttime pictures in and the called it a day. Tomorrow we'll be taking a day trip to Lucca.
Gelato Gusti per il Giorno:
Mike - Creme Caramel e Ferrero Rocher
Aviva - Menthe e Cioccolato Fondente
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