Florence in 4 hours or less

Livorno sunset from Surfer Joe Diner

Tour books were consulted on the train and a few decisions are made. When you only have 4 hours and all the museums are closed, your choices get easier. First business of the train is the personal business, which costs 1 euro. "If I'm going to pay a buck," says Danny, "I'm going to get my money's worth." Steve and Karen grabbed tour maps and led the way. Steve is a history buff, so he's a wealth of information. Karen is an ace nagivator so we find our way to the Catedral de Santa Miara del Fiore and walked around the Piazza del Duomo, admiring the intricate adornments. We have a couple Jewish carpenters along with us, so words like balustrade, flying buttress, and other details like doors with exposed nails coming through the front door to prevent ramming with your shoulder are discussed and debated.

We made our way over Florence's famed Ponte Vecchio covered bridge and found a lunch place, that had AC. Mel, Steve and Stu had the wild boar with pasta which was tasty, and I will be ordering next chance I have. Danny had a dish with buffalo mozzarella. Buffalo is the cow it comes from, but it makes me wonder if the first people who saw the American buffaloes (outside of Native peoples) were Italians, buffalo does sound like an Italian word(?). We have been promised the best mozzarella in Italy when we get to Caserta, apparently it's so fresh, you eat it right out of the water, and it only lasts one day, so it can never be exported from the region. (Sorry for the mozzarella derail.)

After lunch, we walked by the river and the Forte Belvedere, then straight up the hill to Piazalli Michaelangelo, the main feature there was a huge reproduction of David, overlooking a spectacular view of Florence and the surrounding region. Of course the area was filled with vendors selling tchochkes, statue reproductions, meme t-shirts and posters of Marley, Ché, Jimi, Cobain and Heath Ledger in Joker makeup– all the modern Saints.

 

Back down the hill and into town, we did a little more shopping, and Danny and Tony wandered off to get an Internet fix. We wandered around Piazza Della Republica, but I heard more Americano than Italiano, so it was evident we were in tourist central. I also realized that you need a lot more than 4 hours to "do" Florence. Karen, Stu and I headed back to the train station to catch the 5:45 back to Livorno, which was, at this hour, a packed commuter train. Again, no conductor checked our tickets.

I wanted to meet with Lorenzo to discuss the rest of the tour. We took the #1 bus from the station direct to the Diner, where we saw the remains of the bleary eyed Festival staff cleaning up the final messes. The giant stage had been struck, and the gear for our tour organized and in road cases, ready for the load out. Lorenzo and Anne joined us while we ate. The good news is that all the "to be announced" dates have been filled except for one, so it will be 12 shows in a row after tonight. We also discussed the timing of our Tuesday morning packing. Trey and I will share duties driving the smaller car, so we have to go with rental agency to pick it up. As we finished our meal, Svetlana and Oleg came in, so we had a brief chat with them, inviting them to San Francisco, and hurried to catch a bus that never came. Our last walk back to the Duke.

The thrill of doing laundry on the road

A word about the Italian hotel bathroom. First I want to say how amazing it is for us to get to stay in the same place for 5 nights at the beginning of a tour, usually you land and hit the road running, you never get a chance to get bearings and overcome jet lag. It's been a great stay at the Grand Duca. About the bathroom, the most interesting feature is the small, 2' x 2' shower with sliding doors. Its so tight, I always imaging a really large person wedging in there, and the water not being able to fall to the drain, filling up above his waist, and pouring on when he opens the doors. It's so tight, you can't bend to wash your feet, but maybe that's what the bidet is for. No, as the old joke goes, an American tourists asks about the bidet, and the bellboy, who speaks little English pretends he is cradling a baby. The man says, "Oh, it's to wash a baby in?" The bellboy replies, "No, to wash baby out." But, it's great for washing socks and other unmentionables. Finally, il toileta, and please forgive me if I '"go there." I don't know if Italian anatomy is different, but it seems to me, imagine if you will, a space capsule returning to earth, and the angle of trajectory is too severe to make a correct splash landing. However, the beautiful, wall to wall, and on the wall Italian marble makes it all a pleasant experience.