Florentinian adventure

While George went with the ND program on a field trip to Venice, Judy, Mercedes, Georgie and I went to Florence. We arrived last Wednesday morning and left last Friday morning. The main theme of this trip was not Renaissance art as it probably should have been rather it was shopping, in particular shopping for leather!

We stayed in a hostel/ B&B (they described themselves as both) pretty close to the Ponte Vecchio on the other side of the Arno river. This was our view from our room! How spectacular is that! The hosts were very sweet and I would recommend this place to people in the future. The place was a steal and very nice.

After we dropped our stuff off at the B&B, we all headed out to the central part of Florence. First, we went to Santa Croce. I had been there once before and it was amazing to be back. I never thought I would be lucky enough to visit Florence twice! In Santa Croce, quite a few very famous people are buried.

(Galileo)

(This is not a tomb, but look doesn't this statue look familiar? It was sculpted before the Statue of Liberty was.)

(Michelangelo)

(Dante)

(Machiavelli)

To the side of the church, is a cloister with a chapel and two courtyards. My favorite part of the church is this part.

(Judy and Mercedes doing a photo shoot ;P)

After visiting Santa Croce, we went into the many leather shops and other shops in the piazza and on the streets surrounding it. It was fun for us girls to look at all the beautiful items and figure out the differences in quality. But we did not buy anything here, we were waiting for the bargains in the San Lorenzo market! Georgie had a grand time walking around. He flirted with everyone and was talking up a storm clearly thrilled to be walking. I wish I had taken video of him. He had been fussing in the cloister and nothing I did made him happy. Once we got into the piazza and he started walking, he was in seventh heaven. It is such a joy to see him so happy and such a learning experience for me to see him take joy in the simple things.

After we had window shopped for awhile, we started to head to dinner and walked over the Ponte Vecchio. What a beautiful sight!

Thursday morning, we all woke up early so that we could get ahead of the lines at the Uffizi museum. We were one of the first people in the museum (before the tour groups!). Georgie and I saw a few of the first galleries and then Georgie went ballistic. So needless to say the museum would not let me look at the art with a screaming child and nothing I did seemed to make him happy. I ended up spending most of the time in the hall way. I finally did get him to sleep and quickly walked through the galleries.
Lets just say I was not the happiest person in that museum.

After the Uffizi, we walked to the San Lorenzo market. There are tons of stalls selling purses, leather jackets, belts, wallets, scarfs, paper products and so much more. I started to shop and then little George had another fit lasting about an hour. This was a fit like no other. (Two of his molars came in yesterday so in retrospect I realize he was fussy because he was in pain due to his teeth.) Everything I did either only soothed him for a few minutes or just made him more upset. Mercedes ended up getting some baby Tylenol for him (my hero) and we found some stairs for him to climb up (his favorite activity). It calmed him down enough to give him some food. Phew the fit was over, hopefully I do not have to undergo that again (I know I will).

While he took his afternoon nap, I finished my shopping. I was able to get many Christmas presents for family and a few for myself ;).We started heading back to the B&B, stopping at a cafe for prosecco break and looking over our loot. All three of us had ended up getting the same purse at one of the stalls. Mercedes bartered the price down so low that I could not pass up the bargain. Judy's is the coral, Mercedes' the red and mine the blue.

(Little George and I taking the obligatory photo on the Ponte Vecchio.)

Friday morning, Judy left early to meet her sister and brother-in-law in Rome. Mercedes and I stayed until the afternoon trying to see as much of Florence as we could. We first visited the Duomo. (Yes we waited this long to visit the Duomo although in my defense I had been there on my last trip to Florence.)

The fresco in the dome of the Duomo is breathtaking. I ended up looking at it until my neck hurt. Mercedes and I were trying to figure out who some of the people were and trying to figure out the symbolism.  I knew a little but want to learn more about it. 

(The Duomo is so huge that it is impossible to get one picture of the whole thing.)

From the Duomo, we went north to San Lorenzo. This time we were not going to that area for the leather market but to visit the church. This church had some amazing paintings in it. My favorite depicted Christ on the cross and Mary almost passed out in sorrow. There was an angel beside her comforting and supporting her. The painting really made the viewer understand Mary's sorrow. I wish I had a photo of it.

(San Lorenzo courtyard)

After our visit to San Lorenzo, we went into the indoor food market that is in the middle of the leather market. We walked around looking at all of foods. There were some pretty strange food items and some really delicious looking ones. We ened up eating at one of the restaurants in the market, one called the "Virginia Restaurant". Why? Because of the name! 

We picked up our bags at the B&B after lunch and then walked back towards the train station. We walked right by Santa Maria Novella.

Our trip back was uneventful, just as I like it. Georgie and I overall had a great time in Florence. Despite his fits, he loved all the walking he did around Florence. In fact. he sort of started running there. I say 'sort of' since his run is more of a very quick walk that makes one think he is going to fall flat on his face at any moment. It is the cutest thing! Will post video of it as soon as he lets me take video of him running.

As soon as George returns from Athens, then I will post about his trips to Venice, Vicenza, Ferrara, Florence and Athens. The wives did not end up rebelling and tagging along on the trips. We did not want to get the husbands in trouble, make it harder for the ND wives in the future and for the Athens trip, we were concerned about safety. I do not know if the news in the States is covering the strikes and protests in Athens right now, but that is what is going on while the grad students are in Athens. Joy!