Slogging Through Florence

Continuing my reminiscences of our trip to Tuscany in 2000 ...

One cannot even begin to think of Tuscany without also thinking of its major city, Florence, referred to variously as the birthplace and jewel of the Renaissance or, alternatively, as the "Athens of the Middle Ages," with its emblematic Ponte Vecchio over the River Arno.  My younger brother was a student in Florence in 1968-1969 during his university's junior year abroad program and his adventures there remained forever among his hallmark life experiences.  Prior to 2000, I had never visited Florence.  So, as part of our visit to Tuscany, I had arranged for us to spend the Easter weekend in the city.  

Although we did not realize it until we had left beautiful Stresa and the agglomeration that is Milan, we were about to experience travel on one of the most congested travel days of the year.  They say that ignorance is bliss.  That did not prove to be the case for us.  In my ignorance, I had assumed that most Easter weekend travel would occur on Friday afternoon or evening, or even on Saturday, by which time we should already have arrived at our destination.  In Italy, however, the prime travel day for Easter holidays is Good Friday and everyone had begun their travel early in the morning!  I will never, ever, make such a mistake again.  In 2011, things were no different.

A drive that would ordinarily have taken us a little more than four hours lasted all of NINE!  It was not relaxing either.  For one thing, Italian drivers take priority on the right very seriously, even as they enter major highways, fully expecting those who are already on the highway to make way for them.  For another, we would just begin to build up momentum and then traffic would literally squeeze together like an accordion so that everything would come to a complete stop for long periods of time until cars began to creep forward once again.  Pity HWMBO who had to sit in the car with me - never a patient passenger at the best of times!  But even this ordeal finally came to an end and we tentatively made our way into the center of Florence.  There we found our hotel, including parking, although our parking garage was a few blocks away.  We were literally wrung out and, without further ado, fell into bed until the next morning, very thankful not to face any driving for a couple days and wondering why we hadn't just decided to spend the rest of the weekend in Stresa.

All those people on the road had been going somewhere and, to be sure, Florence was one of their destinations.  So, here is what we saw early Saturday morning when we walked into the city center

and again.  Florence was certainly getting its share of Easter visitors.  I believe that this is one of the first times that I experienced what a "throng" really is.

Michelangelo's David is one of the main attractions, even though this statue in the Palazzo della Signoria is a replica.

The original statue was moved to the Accademia Gallery in 1873, and we viewed it there too.

We visited the Uffizi Gallery on Monday - after waiting in line for three hours!  But this wonderful art gallery was well worth the wait.

It was also fun to wander about in more informal settings, even though the artists here can only aspire to have their works hung in the Uffizi someday.

I would love to visit the magnificent city of Florence again someday and spend much more time there.  Our 2000 stay was much too short.  But it is safe to say that I will never again choose to visit during Easter holidays.  And I will not recommend a visit during that period to anyone else, unless they really, really, REALLY love crowds!