Firenze, with a slice of Pisa

I failed to mention in my last blog how warm the hotel room was in Venezia. Since the calendar still dictates that it's "winter," the hotel kept the heat on. Our room, and apparently our fellow group members' rooms, tended to be on the warm and stuffy side. We couldn't switch the thermostat from heat to cool, so we did the next best thing: turn the heat off and open the windows. Ahhhh, much better! We found this to be true throughout the rest of the trip.

Today would be a travel day, going from Venezia to Firenze via Pisa. We had another short walk to meet our water taxi (sound familiar?), which would take us to our bus. Interestingly, there was a common bus and taxi stop just a few minutes walk from our hotel. This is where the taxi dropped us off from the airport when we first arrived. We would be going to a completely different meetup point, though. Yes, with respect to the Italian culture, I'm using the Italian names for the cities instead of the more common names. Is that cool with y'all?

I'm glad both Cindy and I got a good night's sleep, as we had to get up early to have our suitcases outside the door by 6:30 am. We could keep our carry-on bags with us for the bus if we wanted, which we did. OK, we've got this! Several cups of coffee (espresso and hot chocolate combo for me) and a good breakfast then a nap on the bus while making our way to Pisa and Firenze. 

Firenze (Florence), today's ultimate destination

A unique feature, at least for us, was the seat rotation system used by Globus. Our Tour Director Simonetta randomly assigned all of us seats on the bus, which we rotated through daily. Each day, we moved a specified number of seats in a clockwise manner to our next seat.  At first, I thought this was silly, but once we got accustomed to the idea, I could see the logic in it.

Initial seat assignments

Any photo can be enlarged by clicking on it. It will open in a new window, and you won't lose your place here. I recommend viewing the photos in the larger format, as you'll see so much more. The same holds true with any links (in blue) that I add.

Ciao, ciao, Venezia!

photo by Cindy Newman

Now I understand why our suitcases had to be out of the rooms so early. While we were having breakfast, another boat took our luggage to the bus. I know they weren't on the water taxi with us, so Globus has perfected their system of moving luggage efficiently. From now until the end of our tour, we'd be on the same bus with the same driver, Gerardo. The water-based nature of Venezia precluded the need for wheeled transportation.

Typical Globus Bus

image from Google search

Of the hundreds of photos I took on this trip, I failed to take one of our bus. The above photo gives a great look at what we used. There are two entrance doors, forward and mid, that we used. You can see this depicted on the seating chart photo as well. Our initial seats were just behind the mid-boarding door. While the bus did have an onboard restroom, this was reserved for only "emergency" use. Simonetta asked that we refrain from using this unless absolutely necessary. We would be making frequent restroom stops along the way, so thankfully, nobody ever had to use the onboard restroom.

Slight digression here, but it provides good context. Show of hands here, how many of my readers know that I have a voracious reading appetite? I thought so. If you know me at all, you'll know that I'm usually reading two to three books at a time. A few years ago I read a book called Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing written by a guy who trained and served as a prison guard. He emphasized one point over and over, beginning with his first days in training: "The count" was everything. His classmates were all responsible for knowing "the count" at any time. Naturally this is a critical aspect of being a prison guard, knowing where the inmates were at all times. "So what does this have to do with your tour, Patrick?"

Wellllll, lemme tell ya. Starting with that first bus ride, then at every stop we made and every tour, Simonetta or the local tour guides, usually both, would perform "the count." After chuckling at it for the first few times, Cindy asked what was so funny. I told her about this book and said I didn't know if we were tourists or inmates. She seemed to see the humor in this, and I didn't get the "bless your little heart" look from her (at least this time). 

Remember what I said about sleeping on the bus? Now I deserve the "bless your little heart" look. Simonetta took her job as Tour Director very seriously. She kept a running commentary throughout our trip, pointing out various interesting places, how their autostrada (toll road) system worked, and so forth. I guess we can sleep tonight. Don't get me wrong; I truly appreciated her commentary, for the most part. A stretch of quiet time would've been nice too, though. Just sayin'.

Fincantieri Shipyard

What ship is being built?

As we were passing through the northern part of Venezia on the mainland, Simonetta pointed out the Fincantieri Shipyard. This definitely caught my attention, as Fincantieri built several ships for Carnival Cruise Line, my favorite line to sail on. I think the Carnival Panorama was the last Carnival ship built by Fincantieri before new construction was switched to a shipyard in Finland. We sailed on her sister ship, the Carnival Vista, which you can read about here. That link will take you to the initial installment of a series I did about that cruise. Yet another digression, I know, but I really do want to make it convenient for y'all to find my other blogs. Ironically, or maybe not, or friend Will Luke booked that cruise for us as well. He can do it all. If you need a good travel agent, Will's the man! We don't use anyone else.

For the vast majority of this trip, the weather was perfect. Generally cool to mild temperatures with some cloud cover made for perfect walking tours. Today was the "worst" of our weather, with much cooler temperatures and intermittent rain/drizzle. Fortunately, the wettest part of the day was confined to Pisa. All of us were prepared for it, though, and my water-resistant anorak was ready to go in my carry-on bag. I would need it when we got to Pisa. 

Our bus parked in a central parking area close to the famous leaning tower, and we took a tram from there to the entrance of the Piazza dei Miracoli, which encloses not only the tower but also a cathedral and baptistery. With light rain falling, Keith, Barbara, Cindy, and I decided to take a brief look around, snap a few photos, and call it good. Hey, wait a minute. Isn't there a virtual cache here? There is! Sweet, our second Italian geocache (GC8C7D)! 

Cindy posing for the photo

I got a little grief for this after the fact, but not much. "Dude, why didn't y'all take a photo with one of y'all holding up the tower?" Because everyone seems to do that! I wanted something a little different. Isn't that the cutest jacket Cindy has on? I think so.

Rainy day in Pisa

Cathedral & Tower

After a few more photos, Keith, Barbara, Cindy, and I found a small cafe to get out of the weather and have a light lunch. I was a bit damp from all the rain, and with the chilly weather, I wisely chose a hot sandwich instead of gelato, although it was a tough choice. We were going to have a good dinner tonight, so just a snack would do for now. After lunch, we made our way to the tram stop to meet Simonetta, who did "the count." She did another count after we all got back onboard the bus. See what I mean?

We had another 90 minutes or so from Pisa to our hotel in Firenze. The low clouds made for some spectacular views along the way. It was difficult to get good shots from the bus, but here's one that shows what we saw.

On the way to Firenze

I understand why so many people think Tuscany is beautiful. If the above is representative of Tuscany, I'd love to spend a couple of weeks in this region. Much of the drive was like this right up until we entered the city proper. We stayed two nights in Venezia, but the next two places, Firenze and Assisi, would be just one night each. As we arrived at our hotel, we were given another, ummmm, traditional key. What is it with these heavy brass keys? 

Room key

I'm glad these hotels ask for the room key when we leave the premises. That's a heavy chunk of brass to keep in my pocket. When we got to our room, the first thing we did was turn off the thermostat and open the windows. A quick conversion from Celsius to Fahrenheit showed the room to be 82 degrees. Oh HELL no! The cool weather will soon bring the temperature to a comfortable level so I'm not too worried about the heat. We had about an hour before getting back on the bus to go to dinner. With the exception of our second night in Venice, all the rest of our dinners for this tour would either be an "optional excursion" such as tonight or an "included" meal at the hotel (our Welcome dinner the first night, Assisi and our Farewell dinner).

On the way to the restaurant, our tour director took us by a scenic overlook, featuring a bronze statue of David. Tomorrow's tour will include the actual marble statue of David that is iconic throughout the world. This overlook provided a breathtaking view of Firenze, as you'll see below.

Bronze David

Wide view of Firenze

Is this cool or what?

Palazzo Vecchio

Tonight's "Florentine Dinner" will be at Finisterrae in Piazza Santa Croce. We will spend tomorrow afternoon in that same piazza as part of our walking tour of Firenze, but more of that later. Right now, it's time for dinner, and we're hungry! Priorities, people, priorities!

OST (obligatory selfie time)

I'm bound by husbandly duty to include the "OST" photos throughout my blog. Right, babe? Personally, I think it's better if I'm behind the camera instead of in front, but I want to please Cindy. Now on to the food!

Pasta course

Two kinds of pasta, a pesto-based sauce and a bolognese sauce. Both were delicious. For the entree, we had our choice of beef or fish. I'm sure y'all know what I picked, right?

Florentine steak

The demi-glace on that steak was simply divine. Dragging the roasted potatoes through the sauce made both taste even better.

Dessert

OK, everyone, channel your inner Clemenza and say it with me.....

Please tell me y'all got that reference. Feeling brave? Add your guess to the comments section below. I know some of y'all got it......right? If not, you'll have to read the next installment for the answer. Hey, whatever it takes to get more views.

Now a word about the wine. Since we are in Tuscany, the only wine I'm consuming is Tuscany's signature wine: Chianti. As I fully expected, this wine was every bit as good as I hoped it would be. I'll have to look for this label at our local Spec's.

Just one bottle?

Can you hear my contented sigh?

When I'm not writing about food and drink, or cruising or other travel, I'm writing about:

DING!

"What are board games, Alex?"

"Correct, for $500."

Unsurprisingly, one of my favorite board games is called Viticulture. In this game, you inherit a small vineyard, and it's your task to grow it into a successful business by growing and harvesting grapes and making and selling wine. Sounds simple, but it's not. You are competing for limited resources, and others will often beat you to that critical resource you need. There is an expansion called Tuscany which adds much to the game. Personally, I think it's an indispensable part of the game, and we always play Viticulture with this expansion. If you haven't played Viticulture yet, you should give it a try. It is a LOT of fun (as are most of their games)!

After booking this trip, and knowing we'd be in Tuscany, I pulled one of the game cards out of the box for some fun photos. I got permission from Jamey Stegmaier, co-founder of Stonemaier Games, to use the game card in some photos. Thank you, Jamey! 

Sangiovese grape card

Closeup of card

Yes, the Sangiovese grape is the primary component of Chianti. That's why I chose that particular card. The next time we play Viticulture will be even more special, and more relatable. 

As we finished this wonderful meal, Simonetta told us that she would arrange for taxis for those who wanted a ride back to our hotel. Otherwise, we were welcome to take the 20-minute walk with her and Gerardo. Cindy and I, along with three others, chose to walk back with Simonetta. Since she didn't have to be in full "tour director mode," it was fun to just visit with her as a person and not necessarily as a Globus employee. I'm glad we chose to walk. By the time dinner was over, the piazza was mostly deserted and we were able to get some really nice night shots.

Dante Alighieri

Yep, that's Dante, who wrote the Divine Comedy. I listened to it as an audiobook several years ago, and now I see his statue in Santa Croce Square. At the time, I had no idea that I would cross paths with Dante. We continued our walk to the hotel, taking in all the sights.

Me: giggle, giggle

Cindy: What's so funny?

Me: nothing...giggle

Cindy: What??

Me: Nothing! You'll just get annoyed with me.

Cindy: Just tell me; I won't get annoyed.

Me: Yes, you will...giggle

Cindy: Oh, come on!

Me: OK, I warned you. From here, it looks like that guy in the statue is peeing all over that other guy.

Cindy: <sigh> Seriously? I can't believe you sometimes.

Me: I told you!

See what I mean?

photo by Cindy Newman

You really need to click on that photo to enlarge it. I think most of y'all will agree with me....at least I hope so.

Duomo at night

photo by Cindy Newman

That 20-minute walk back to the hotel felt much shorter than the 20-minute walk to the gelato place yesterday. Maybe time works differently here in Firenze than it does in Venezia. Or maybe we weren't already tired and hungry here like we were in Venezia.

Plan for Firenze

Not bad, at least we get a little more sleep tomorrow morning. Tomorrow is primarily a walking tour of Firenze, followed by some free time, then it's back on the bus to Assisi. All we really need are our radio receivers for the guided tour portions. We can store our carry-on bags on the bus, but we won't see the bus until the afternoon. 

Coffee, breakfast, a little more coffee, and then it's time to place our carry-on bags on the bus and turn in our room keys. Our first stop will be the Galleria dell'Accademia, home of Michelangelo's David. Route step, MARCH!

One of the biggest advantages of using a tour company like Globus is that they pre-purchase all of the tickets we'll need, oftentimes with a "fast pass" or "head of the line" option that allows us as a group to bypass all of the long general admission ticket holders. These early morning starts, while not the most relaxing, also mean smaller crowds compared to later in the day.

This fine arts museum holds everything from paintings to sculptures to musical instruments. I took many more photographs than what I included here, but these should give y'all a good sampling of what this museum has to offer.

The collection of musical instruments included some Stradivarius violins. Some of these look like they could've been on the set of the movie Amadeus. I didn't see any Les Paul guitars, though. Go figure.

One particular painting caught my eye that I'd like to call either  "Game Night at the Newmans" or "Welcome to My World" although I'm sure the actual name is more appropriate. This was another "what are you laughing at?" moments that I couldn't keep to myself. I'll let y'all decide the appropriate title. Please feel free to put your suggestions in the comments section below.

Now obviously I write these things in jest. Most everyone reading this knows both Cindy and me and will immediately see the humor in it. For my new readers. I assure you that neither title is even remotely accurate. 

For all the photos I've seen online or in books of the famous David sculpture, I was taken by surprise when I actually got to it. There were no crowds milling about, no elaborate signage or anything to mark the occasion. I turned the corner and there he was in all his marble glory.

Some nekkid dude

Movie fans reading this, zoom in on the face, and imagine David with dark hair. Does he remind you of any particular movie character? Lemme know in the comments below. There are no right or wrong answers. I have my own opinion but would love to see what y'all think.

This next sculpture, along with many others in the same room caught my eye due to a common thing on all of them.

Venus, taken from Titian

You'll need to really zoom in on the photo to see what I'm referring to. Notice all the black dots covering the sculpture? I asked one of the docents and she replied that these are measurement marks made by those restoring the sculptures and would be removed once restoration was complete.

As is our custom, we stopped by the gift shop to find a Christmas ornament. We collect Christmas ornaments from our travels that tell a story on our tree. With so many of these, we need a large tree to fit those and the more traditional ornaments that we like. 

Once we finished the museum, we visited both a leather and gold shop. Firenze is known for its leather and gold products and these shops offered generous discounts for us on the tour. We also had free use of the restrooms throughout the day whether we bought anything or not.

After this, we had free time for a few hours to tour on our own, have lunch or do what we pleased. We had to be at the meeting point near the leather shop by 2:30 to walk with Simonetta to the bus for our trip to Assisi.

Part of the fun of traveling is planning and researching where we'll be and what unique things there are to do. Yes, this was a guided tour, but we still had free time to explore on our own and we wanted to make the most of it. While watching a food and wine series by Stanley Tucci, Cindy discovered a curious thing called "wine windows." These windows date back hundreds of years and are essentially a way for one to buy a glass of wine without having direct contact with the vendor. Sound familiar? Apparently, these wine windows were crucial for some restaurants' survival during COVID, as social distancing was built in.

Cindy found several in Firenze that were still in use and thankfully one of them was very close to Santa Croce Square. In fact, we decided to have lunch there and try out the wine window. Cindy was ecstatic to participate, and I'm glad we could make this happen. I know it was one of the high points for her in Firenze. 

We found Osteria San Fiorenzo literally around the corner from the leather shop and lunch was just starting. We had our pick of tables outside so we picked one right next to the wine window.

Buchette del vino (wine window)

I was curious whether the staff would view this as just another touristy annoyance, but they were enthusiastic about it and insisted on us taking our time to get the photos we wanted. We both ordered the house red to go with our lunch and thought it was smooth and tasty. Cindy ordered the bruschetta, and I had the four-cheese gnocchi. Wow, the gnocchi was loaded with flavor and perfectly cooked!

Bruschetta

Four-cheese gnocchi

A relaxed, casual lunch and plenty of time to tour one of the other landmarks. The Basilica di Santa Croce fit the bill nicely. Off we go!

I mentioned in the Venezia blog just how much "wow" we experienced while visiting the Doge's Palace and all the other historic buildings. Based on what I've seen thus far, I can tell that pretty much any place we visit will have lots of "wow." No surprise, then, that as soon as walked in the "wow" hit us full force. Sensory overload, anyone?

Elaborate ceiling

Breathtaking stained glass

We'll be visiting Assisi, the home of the Franciscan Order, tomorrow, so this display caught my eye. These are part of the habit that St. Francis of Assisi actually wore. I'm looking forward to learning more about St. Francis tomorrow.

St. Francis' habit

Many historic figures have their remains interred here. I was amazed at how many "big" names in history rest here as we walked about the basilica.

Michelangelo's crypt

Galileo Galilei's crypt

Dante's crypt

Gioachino Rossini's crypt

It's hard to fathom the amount of historical importance in just one room of one basilica in one city of one country. We haven't even got to Rome yet. This basilica contained an inner courtyard that had a beauty all its own.

Inner courtyard

As Cindy and I finished our tour, we noted that we had enough time for a gelato before proceeding to the meetup point. I didn't bother taking a photo of it since it was just a cone that we devoured within minutes. 

Everyone was on time and after "the count," Simonetta led us along the Arno River to the pickup point for our bus. She pointed out the overlook that we visited the previous night, and where those magnificent photos of Firenze were taken. Click on the photo and look toward the top left, between two clumps of trees. You'll see the bronze David peering down at us.

Dave? Dave's not here, man!

Since today is a new day, our seat rotation kicked in, and we moved from our original seats to our new seats. "Skip three rows, and sit in the fourth row, excluding the very back." Our original seats are circled in red and our new seats for today are in green.

From the right to the left

From Firenze to Assisi, we were looking at about a two-hour ride. From Tuscany to Umbria, blue skies treated us to a pleasant view as we made our way south. Next stop, Hotel Cenacolo in Assisi.

Whew, what a full day, huh? Lots of material to cover for a day's worth of touring. Tonight's dinner would be one of the "included" meals Globus offered. 

I'm eager to read some of your comments, especially about the statue Cindy and I.....discussed. Have you been to Firenze? I'd love to read about it below.

Coming up next, our adventures in Assisi. Jump to this installment here.

Here are links to the previous blogs in this series:

1. Ciao, Italia!

2. Our Day in Venezia

Until next time....

carpe cerevisi