A Few Days in Florence

Our trip from Spoleto to Florence was a bit longer than we planned. We caught what we thought was the train to Foligno where we would change to the Florence train, expecting a trip of about 3 hours. Unfortunately we couldn't understand the station announcements and we ended up on the late running express train to Rome. So we went to Rome first, where we bought some panini for lunch at the Roma Termini station, then we boarded the 11.13 train to Florence. We knew about this train because it's the same one we caught to get us to Spoleto when we first arrived in Italy. This time we had a very comfortable trip, in fact we had a compartment to ourselves until the last 30 minutes of the journey. We arrived in Florence at 14.48, about 3 hours later than we had planned. We found the Hotel Olimpia in Piazza Della Republica easily and booked into our room. The hotel is on the 4th floor - yes there's a lift - and is comfortable and central. We have a room overlooking a small courtyard at the back of the hotel so it will be quiet. After we settled in we went for a walk around the city to sort ourselves out. It's light enough to take photos without a flash until about 8.30pm so we've managed to take some photos of the Duomo without any crowds.

There's plenty to see here and we'll barely scratch the surface. Florence has about 40 museums and plenty of churches and piazzas so we'll get our fill of Renaissance art while we're here. We will see many artworks we have previously only seen in books over the next few days. The big problem for us is to work out which of our many photos to upload. You'll have to visit us to see them all. Our hotel is in the Central area and is close to the picturesque Ponte Vecchio and the Duomo. Florence is easy to walk around. It's flat and is hard to get lost. We can see why it's a favourite European city. There seems to be an influx of US college students - they are everywhere. Pretty well everyone here speaks English and it's a bit strange for us with the halting Italian we need to use in Spoleto.

On Wednesday morning we ventured forth to the Duomo - the Cathedral complex.  The museum is very interesting and traces the different stages of the Cathedral and its various renovations.  There are many sculptures, including Donatello's Magdalena and Choir Stalls. We were also within "touching distance" of Michelangelo's Pieta which is on display there.

This museum has a spectacular silver altar and cross which have been completely renovated. The renovations took 6 years and the altar was completely dismantled during the process.












After the Museum we climbed the Giotto Tower - all 414 steps to the top of the bell tower. There are 3 staging floors where we could stop to catch our breath, before we got to the top. WOW!!! The views over Florence are stunning and the climb was well worth the effort. It's not a climb I'd like to do in the afternoon when we're hot and tired though - certainly a morning exercise.

Then it was off to the Cathedral with it's magnificent dome. The Cathedral is built on the site of a Roman era "primitive" church. We walked through the well presented excavated area and saw some elaborate mosaic floors in the crypt.  Next to the Cathedral is the Baptista which is spectacular. The walls and dome are covered in golden mosaics and the floor is covered in marble mosaics. The outside walls of the Duomo buildings are undergoing significant cleaning and restoration and where this has been completed the colours of the marble panels are vivid green and red and the carvings look like they've been painted.

Later in the day we explored some of the nearby piazzas and found more sculptures and artworks.

Thursday morning we headed towards the Galleria degli Uffizi on the banks of the Arno River. We couldn't take photos inside this museum so bought a guidebook to remind us of the wonderful artworks. There were plenty of tour groups, luckily they were rushing through so we took our time and let the tour groups race on ahead and spent about 2 1/2 hours there. Our audio guides were worth the investment as the various rooms and key works were well explained. Again many famous art works by Leonardo da Vinci, Titian, Tintoretto, Raffaello and Caravaggio.  In the afternoon we visited the Galleria dell'Accademia to see Michelangelo's David. We had seen (and photographed) a copy of this statue in one of the piazzas but nothing can prepare you for the real thing. At about 6m high, the statue is huge and we just sat and looked at its perfectionfor about 15 minutes. There was a variety of art on exhibit with some modern art by Picasso and Andy Warhol and video as well as Renaissance sculptures and medieval art. Again no photos, so we bought another guidebook. By this time we've managed to complete the full set of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Michelangelo, Raffaello, Donatello and Leonardo.  This website has a virtual your of the galleries http://www.uffizi.firenze.it/en/.  Thursday evening we sat in one of the many churches listening to an organ recital.



Our visit has been leisurely and we know there is still plenty to see. Florence is a "shoppers paradise" with many shops and markets. Leather goods abound with jackets, handbags and shoes in abundance. Other popular goods are papier mache and leather masks and elaborately painted trays.  We have done our bit to improve the Florentine economy while we've been here.  The Ponte Vecchio is lined with jewellery shops and there are many many cafes and restaurants. We had a lovely seafood dinner at a restaurant overlooking the river. Huge prawns and lobster - YUMMY!! There's lots of street art about. Near our hotel a group of pavement artists do a different chalk drawing of a well known "old master" each day. We've also seen lots of electric smart cars. These little 2- seaters drive nose-first into parking spots and plug in to recharge. They can fit about 4 or 5 to one normal sized car park.

Friday morning we went souvenir shopping as we planned to catch a train back to Spoleto in the afternoon. This time we caught the right train and in fact didn't need to change trains at nearby Foligno as we expected - our train continued on to Spoleto. Once back in our sleepy little town we caught a bus from the station back up the hill to our apartment. We've done lots of walking over the past few days so will spend the next few days relaxing.

A Day in the Umbrian Countryside

Monday morning we wandered down the hill to meet Andrea at his reataurant, Nove Cento.  We've booked Andrea and his London Taxi for a trip to the nearby wine producing area of Montefalco. What a a fantastic day out with Andrea in his taxi.  We left Spoleto at 11am for a drive through the countryside to Montefalco.  We spent about 45 minutes wandering the streets of Montefalco and checking out the shops for some of their great handmade goods.  The area specialises in damask fabrics, majollica ceramics and woodwork.

Then it was back into the taxi at about 12.30pm for a drive to the Romanelli Winery and Olive Farm.  We had a fantastic time at the farm and learned a lot about their olives/olive oils and grapes/wines before being treated to an olive oil and wine tasting with some food - antipasti, bruchetta, cheese and sweet biscuits - chosen to match the wines.  The Romanelli's farm is family owned and produces organic olive oils and a number of the local Sagrastino wines.  They use natural methods to control pests and have small bird boxes to house the small birds that control insects.  There is also a large nesting box for falcons which control rodents. 

Back into the taxi again for a drive around some more of Umbria's lovely countryside, through Foligno to Fonti del Clitumno where we stopped for a walk around the park and spring taking photos of this oasis and its wildlife.  The spring here is the source of the Clitumno River and the water is crystal clear. There are plenty of water birds, white swans, plenty of ducks and some juvenile geese which were intent on bossing the ducks around.  There was also a female goose sitting on a nest on an island in the middle of the river.  Then it was back to Spoleto and our apartment at about 3.45pm.  This was much better than hiring a car as we could both enjoy the scenery and the wines.

 

We have a big day tomorrow as we're off to Florence for a few days

Another Bus Trip around Spoleto

It's Saturday morning and we've decided to do another bus trip around Spoleto.  We just manage to miss the 10.30 Circulare A bus so we decide to have a cup of coffee to fill in time to catch the 11.00am Circulare C bus. Once on the bus we ae off for a one hour ride through the nearby town of San Brizio to Bruna where'd the bus turns around and comes back to Spoleto.  Once out of Spoleto we follow the valley through farmland.  The small farms have crops of sunflowers in bud, hopefully we'll see them in flower before we leave in a few weeks.  We also pass farms with beans, wheat, tomatoes, corn and potatoes. We see olive groves too.  The farms are quite small, 25ha is a big farm here.  At Bruna we are about halfway to Montefalco where we are going on Monday with Andrea in his London Taxi. While we are on the bus we notice that it's a bit windy and feels like a thunderstorm is on the way.  Nothing could prepare us for what we saw when we returned to Spoleto. There had been a massive windstorm through the town. As we passed Piazza della Stazione we saw that several trees had been blown down crushing a number of cars parked near the park. The park near our apartment had taken a beating too.  There were several branches down and a few trees blown over.  The chestnuts lost many of their newly forming nuts and the ground was a carpet of green from the leaves.  Our entertainment for the rest of the day was to watch one of the local fireman up a cherry picker wielding a chainsaw one-handed to make the remaining trees safe.  He was being ably supervised by a couple of policemen and the cherry picker driver.

Dinner was at Tre Fontane, a nearby pizzeria very popular with the locals.  We could see why when we got our pizzas -they were delicious.  We plan to return for more pizzas there.  They also seem to do a roaring take-away trade and by 9pm the place was packed. 

Over the past few days the Spoletosphere has had an artistic touch.  This dome was erected in the mid 1960s and was the first dome of this kind erected in Europe.  Over the past few days some oversized seats have been erected under the dome.

On Sunday evening there was a religious procession up the street near our apartment from the nearby monastery. 

Vini Nel Mondo Spoleto

The Spoleto Wine Festival was on over the weekend.  It began on Friday and ended Sunday night.  This mostly quiet town really rocked - especially on Saturday night when La Notte Bianca del Vino (Night of the White Wine) kicked off.  We paid 25 euros each for a 3 day pass which gave us a wine glass in a pocket to hang around our necks and entry to the many wine tastings around the town.  Things were pretty quiet on Friday but by 4pm Saturday there were plenty of people around.  Corso Garibaldi was packed and we didn't venture into the Piazza in the evening.  The weather was great - 25-27C and bright sunshine, so it was good to participate in the wine tastings which were held both inside and outside.  Some of the local shops also held their own tastings.  The shops got into the spirit of things and decorated their windows in a wine theme - balloons hung to look like bunches of grapes, barrels and vine leaves abounded.  Most of the restaurants were booked out for lunches and dinners from Friday night onwards.


It was good to see the retailers and restaurants cashing in on the festival as they are generally doing it tough in the current economic climate here.

 Saturday night was a real event.  The shops were open most of the night - at least until 2am - and the music boomed away until 5am.  At midnight we had marching bands on the corso outside our apartment.

In the evening we took advantage of the escalators operating late (they usually close about 8pm) and went for a walk through the top of the city at 10pm.  The Rocca and the Ponte della Torres are both lit up at night and looked great. We discovered that there had been a 6 Hour Ultra Marathon Race around the Rocca, which accounted for the runners riding the escalators down the hill.  Some participants had medals and prizes.

As well as wine tastings, there were some food stalls.  We partook of chocolate tasting - dark, milk, white with nuts, orange, berries, displayed like large chocolate pizzas - and cheese tastings - various types of local Umbrian cheeses -  and tried some local takeaways, Umbrian mortadella panini and Siciliano Arancia (Sicilian orange) which is hard to describe but includes tasty meat and vegetables encased in a bean/semolina mix rolled in breadcrumbs and deep-fried, about the size and shape of an orange.  There was a great array of wines, with hundreds of wines on offer - red, white, rose, still and sparkling, sweet and dry from all over Italy.  We tried quite a few over the weekend.

On our travels between wine tastings we called into the Open Art Gallery where sculptor and painter Giampiero Panella lives and has his works on display.  Spoleto born and bred, he spent a number of years living in Australia and we spent some time talking to him and looking at his sculptures.  Nearby we passed a part of the ancient city wall which was built before Roman settlement in 241BC.  Legend has it that this wall was built by the mythical Cyclopes.


Today Spoleto is back to normal.  Being Monday, many shops are closed, and the weather is cool and cloudy.