Adventures: July 2022 – Florence, Italy

Saturday 9th July

I set out at 6am for Florence (The Italian’s call it Firenze). I successfully caught the bus to Follonica, then had only long enough to buy my ticket before the train to Pisa arrived. It was so easy and so fast – at Pisa in what felt like no time!

After a quick train change at Pisa, and another hour, I arrived in Florence – the Rifrendi station where the intercity trains stop (which is not the main city station, word to the wise. I quickly figured out that I was in not quite the right place, and caught yet another train.) I made it to my Skip-the-Line appointment for 11am to climb the 400+ steps of the Duomo at Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. Turns out my ticket also let me into the bell tower, the crypt, the baptistry and the Cathedral, but I was a bit churched out after my epic climb in 37 degree heat. I had received a message from my employers during my climb that they were very excited I’d gone to Florence, and that I didn’t need to be back until 3pm on Monday.

2 nights in Florence? Don’t mind if I do… 

After being shooed from a cafe for not spending the requisite amount, and therefore unwelcome at their tables (no offer to take an order, though), I hid inside the Cathedral, away from the heat, and trawled apps for last minute accommodation. 

I found a cute, cheap and cheerful place to stay near the intercity station – which would be handy for leaving, but not much else. 

I made my way outside to the ‎Filippo Brunelleschi statue to start the walking tour for 2pm (Would not recommend this time of the day for a walking tour during summer). An eccentric lady with wild curls and a brilliant sparkly pink dress explained the intricacies of Florence’s history through a thick accent and broken English. 

She took us past many important sites, starting with a portrait of Dante, father of the Italian language. We went past churches from the dar ages, and houses where various members of fancy families used to live.

We went past the Bargello Palace National Museum, through Palazzo Vecchio, and into Piazza della Signoria. We saw where the Uffizi Gallery was (and the extensive lines outside) and finished at the Ponte Vecchio – the old bridge – a bridge covered in beautiful jewellery shops! It took all of my self-control to stay strictly in the middle and not further add to my earring collection. (I was happily distracted with gelato instead.)

I had seen loads of cool shops in my travels that day, and realised that I would probably need to purchase some of them if I was to stay another 2 days. 

I found some cute things near the underground plaza at the train station. Adequately clothed, I set out to my accommodation, checked in, and asked for recommendations for dinner. 

Frederico lent me a wall charger, and recommended a few local favourites. I decided upon one, donned my new dress, and set out. 

The restaurant was a delight – pasta, salad, tiramisu, all washed down with an ample amount of wine made for a great night. Particularly hilarious when I woke up the next morning, and realised that I had been very efficient in my inebriated state – I had booked myself in for an 11am tour, and also a 5 hour wine tour later that afternoon. 

Sunday 10th July

After rewatching my wedding ceremony and reminding myself how very lucky I am to have such a great hubby, I set out on my pre-ordained adventures. 

I arrived quite early into Florence for my 11am time at the Leonardo di Vinci Interactive Museum, so wandered the streets for a bit. I may or may not have stumbled upon a gelato place that was serving the Florentine special so decided to try it! It was like marmalade ice cream with chocolate chips – not my favourite. 

I headed back and entered the Leonardo di Vince Interactive Museum. I thought I knew a fair bit about Leonardo di Vinci, but I barely scratched the surface! He was prolific. The bastard son of some well to do aristocrat, he got his start as an apprentice painter under Andrea del Verrocchio. I managed to accidentally piggyback on a guided tour, so I pretended to inspect paintings carefully and listened intently. 

He was ridiculously good at painting, and had soon superseded his master.  It’s said that he painted the angel in a particular painting that his master was working on and it was so magnificent that his master declared that he was never going to paint again in his life.

He ran into some trouble with the church, and then went to Milan to work in the Duke Ludovico Sforza’s court, where he painted the last supper fresco after 3 painful years. But he didn’t do it properly, and so it didn’t adhere to the wall in the way it was supposed to. The painting created an optical illusion that you were literally in the same room as Christ and his disciples who di Vinci decided to paint the moment after Christ mentioned one of them was going to betray him, rather than some serene scene. 

So this museum had one small room dedicated to di Vinci’s art, but the rest of it was his engineering projects – brought to life from sketches in his notebooks. He was fascinated with various ways to make people fly, but he was also employed as a military tactician, creating machines of war. He created an early version of a tank, and a horse-drawn scythe machine that could cut down anyone the horses haven’t already trampled on. There was a version of an archimedes screw to elevate water from a river to a field or clear out a swamp, and a million other precise and beautifully recreated objects that you were able to move to see how they worked in real life. 

After this, I went back to a cafe that I eyed on my walking tour the day before, and had a delicious lunch of salmon salad, focaccia and tiramisu! 

I departed and headed for the tram heading to the bus station which was the meeting point for the wine tour. 

Turns out that the majority of people getting off of the train would also be going on the wine tour, and joined the waiting thirsty horde. 

About 20 minutes after our scheduled time, we were divided into two coach loads and set off on the wine tour. I napped on the way to the first winery, and I was a little groggy, so missed the name of the place, but it was pretty much exactly what I thought a Tuscan winery should be like – but possibly even better! 

When we went to Bordeaux in February, we did a very fancy wine tour, where they gave you a tiny little tasting at each winery, but it was obviously more about selling wine than anything else. 

This tour however, did none of the ‘this is how we make the wine’ and ‘this is where we store the wine’, pretense. It was simply, please come, sit down, drink – a full glass of white and red – and have some meat and bread! It was awesome!

We were given a little time to walk around the vineyard, before heading to our next destination: Montereggio, where we happened upon a medieval festival that was happening that weekend. 

We arrived just as the 21 gun salute was going off, and were greeted by court jesters, artisans, courtiers, soldiers and a host of other people in medieval garb. There was a marching band performing and a range of various ancient weapons being fired. 

In our brief stop, we had a quick look around the town, and out onto the impressive vista from the edge of the city walls, taking in another glass of wine along the way for good measure – even their cheap shitty table wine is DELICIOUS! And a bonus free pottery cup to drink it out of and keep as a souvenir. 

I befriended a Canadian girl on the bus – a mere 18 years old, and out touring Europe alone – and 2 other Aussie girls, and as we travelled between places, I got their respective life stories. 

Elke, one of the Australians is touring through Europe on her way to LA to launch her acting career – I wish her well! She was saying that her mum is a teacher, and that she’s been writing children’s books, and self-publishing them on Amazon, and she’s made enough money from it to retire from teaching. She also has a fan club on Facebook, and gets fan mail. She made it sound to easy, so possible! It’s an inspiration to actually put some of the many half written books in my head onto paper. 

The second winery we went to we had both buses worth of people in the same room, and it was a lot, the poor guy kept trying to educate us about the nuances of the wine, and at that point on a Sunday evening when you have about 100 people who are keen on drinking, there were not many listening, but he persevered well. I could commiserate with trying to get the attention of those who have no intention of giving it.

When we were there we tried a white wine and 2 reds. The first red was a Chianti Classico, a brilliant red wine, and very difficult to get the right to call your wine that particular name, because you have to be from a certain region and have exactly the right proportions of grapes for that blend – mostly sangiovese. 

It was one of the best glasses of wine I’ve ever had. 

There was another one after that that was a lot more robust and I think Jared would’ve enjoyed it – it was mixed with merlot and such, but wasn’t really my cup of tea. Or wine. 

Halfway through this tour, I got a message from my employer asking me to be back for 12:30 the following day, not 3pm. I went into a bit of a tailspin, because there was a notice of strikes when I was looking up trains from Google Maps, and it said there were a whole lot of trains that were cancelled. 

I took note of which ones were cancelled and which ones weren’t, but that only got me to 11pm that evening, and didn’t account for any of the overnight trains. To get to Florence I had to catch a bus from where I was staying 30 mins to Follonica, then a train to Pisa, then another train to Florence. I should be able to do that process in reverse to return, but the threat of some of those connections not being there made me rather anxious. I had only known these people for 4 days, I didn’t want to abusing the freedom that they’d given me, or looking like I’m taking advantage. 

I got up at 5am, left at 6, and made it back by 10:30am…. then wasn’t needed for work until 4pm. Argh.

In conclusion: Tuscany is as beautiful as everyone says it is, Florence is lovely, but I think I left with more things not seen than seen – still plenty left to explore. 

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What is the point of travel?

Am I travelling to just tick it off of a list? To scratch it off a map? Am I travelling to impress my insta or FB friends? Is it just because everyone else thinks it’s awesome that you’re going here?

None of those are bad reasons, but it’s really got me thinking about why I’m doing what I’m doing, and as I proceed with making more plans to travel in the future, what actually are my priorities? Do I need to drudge around and look at every church in existence or do I actually want to climb a mountain or look for the best beaches or find the nicest island in the Mediterranean instead? 

I caught myself on the walking tour, coloured by fatigue, saying to myself it doesn’t matter what you tell me on this walking tour, I don’t care. I actually do.not.care. 

When I am spending so much time, effort and money on travel, to get to the stage where I viscerally don’t give a shit, and I just want to chill with a drink in a park is a weird space to be in, but here we are. 

Perhaps going to the ‘top 10’ of whatever city I happen to be in and following everyone else like a travel lemming isn’t the ‘correct way’. As if there is a ‘correct way’.

I think if I’m only travelling because other people have said I should, or because it’s the ‘done thing’, or because I’ve been imprisoned on a small island for far too long and I just feel the need to escape, then maybe I need to check my reasons. Anything other than an insatiable need to see what’s around the next corner, an effervescent curiosity, may not be the best motivation. 

Cities and history are lovely, but I must say I prefer the beach 9 times out of 10. Any beach – I don’t discriminate – but ideally one with a bit of surf and nice sand for drying out after a decent swim. Perhaps I want to get more into doing day tours or hiking? Things to consider. 

With all of this in mind, as I drunkenly booked tickets on Saturday night, I must admit I was secretly relieved that the art galleries were booked out, and that I got to go to the Leonardo di Vinci Interactive museum instead – because it was interesting and really fun!

I’m sure I would’ve found a way to find interest in the Accademia and the Uffizi, and maybe, much like the Louvre, I would’ve enjoyed them much more than I thought I was going to, but honestly, I’m not sorry I missed them this time.

Perhaps next time in Florence, I will go, but when you are travelling, don’t ever feel obliged to go to the ‘must see’ attractions just because everyone else is going. Find what interests you, find what you love, and go there. 

Don’t bore yourself with town squares and cathedrals just because everyone else is.

There is no curriculum to travel, no things that you have to see, no set agenda. Appreciating history is important certainly, but it can be as much a hindrance from moving into the future as it is an asset, depending on how it is used.

I enjoyed Sunday infinitely more than Saturday, because I selected things I loved, and met amazing people along the way. 

Useful links:

Top things to see in Florence