Florence Day 1 and 2

Sunday morning we got up, checked out, and headed for the local train. Most of the day was spend traveling - just over an hour to get to Naples, then the high speed train for over 3 hours to get to Florence. We had about 30 minutes between trains, and I really needed to go to the bathroom. There was, of course, a long line for the women, and no line for the men. Not only was there a long line, but from what I could gather from folks in front of me, and the sign on the wall, it was going to cost me to use the bathroom. The line was moving so slow, that after 10 minutes or so, I gave up, and watched our bags while Erik went to the bathroom. He was done in a minute, and didn't have to pay, so perhaps the sexes are not yet equal in Naples! We grabbed some pizza to take on the train, and I used the free bathroom in first class.

The further north the train went, the worse the weather got. First, just cloudy, but just before Florence, we hit rain. We decided to take a taxi rather than dragging our bags through the rain (only) 960 yards to the hotel. Once we arrived at the hotel, we had to haul our bags, which are getting heavier as we add souvenirs, up 26 steps to the hotel lobby. We dropped off our bags, and decided that despite the bad weather, we should do some sightseeing, since our time in Florence is short. We headed out to check out the Ufuzzi, hoping we would get lucky with short lines, but they were long as expected. Next stop was the Ponte Vecchio, where we window shopped the gorgeous but very expensive jewelry. We made our way across the river and ended up at the Pitti Palace. But not before getting gelato from a corner store with beautifully decorated mounds of gelato. It was late in the afternoon by then, so we only had time to see one of the museums in the Pitti Palace - the Palantine Gallery. The gallery featured many works by Pietro Benevenuti, but the real highlight was the architecture of the palace itself, especially the frescos on the ceilings and the ornate carvings. We then made our way back to the hotel, and asked for a dinner recommendation. Thomas, one of the hotel owners, suggested Restaurant Natalinos. He said it was only a 10 minute walk, but it seemed like we walked forever to get there. However, the walk was totally worth it. The food was the best we've had in Italy. And, the wine was as well. Their house special pasta is pear stuffed pasta in a gorgonzola sauce. Sounds crazy, but it was amazing!! We spent several hours eating and relaxing, and had a second course of chicken and peppers, capped off by a slice of chocolate cake which was closer to fudge in consistency than cake. The walk back to the hotel seemed shorter - somehow a full belly and a bottle of wine will do that, I guess.

Monday was a day trip to Tuscany. There were 4 other people from our hotel and us in a small van. We choose this day trip because it combined seeing some of the small towns in the area with visiting a winery and doing a wine tasting. The driver gave us an overview of the day when we got in the van, but little did we know that was the only speaking he had planned to do for the day. It was a sharp change from the constant narration we received from Carmello during our tours in Sorrento. Not for the better. Our first stop was a winery in Chianti country called Casa Sola. We got the grand tour of the fields and their wine and olive oil making process. We got lucky with the weather - although the ground was still quite soggy, it was sunny and beautiful. We learned that most of the process is still done by hand, and also learned the difference between hot pressed and cold pressed olive oil (yes, you can taste the difference). Of course, the best part was getting to taste the wines. After learning about the different aging processes for the different wines, we got to experience first hand the benefits of the additional time spent on the more expensive wines. Although they fed us meats and cheeses with the tasting, it did little to blunt the good buzz we had walking out of there. We're looking forward to receiving our case of chianti, uh I mean "olive oil" back here in the US.

The next stop on the tour was San Gimignano, a town on top of a hill entirely surrounded by a wall. It is quite impressive to see from afar, but is a cute little town once you get inside the walls. We were given about 1 1/2 hours to explore the town, but this included eating lunch, so to save time, we grabbed a slice of pizza (not nearly so good this far north - those Southern Italians have cornered the market on pizza), and sat on the steps of a well in the center of town to eat. We used the rest of our time to shop and check out the amazing views. We missed our chance to climb to the top of the tower in the middle of town, as they had it closed temporarily for a shift change. Oh darn. We enjoyed some gelato from the shop that was the World Champion in 2006-07, and it was quite yummy. Despite our drivers lack of commentary, he certainly knew how to drive us into restricted areas so we had little walking to do to enjoy the towns, which we appreciated as we passed tourist after tourist hiking up the hill from the parking lots outside the walls.

Next was a quick stop at another small town - Monteriggioni - which was even smaller village, surrounded by walls. It consisted of one church and a hand full of shops. We were able to pay to climb to the top of the wall, and could walk around part of the wall on a metal walkway they had constructed. Our final stop was Siena. Again, for a town where you're not allowed to drive, our driver found a way to take us all the way into the city's main square - Il Campo. We had more time to spend here, so started by hiking up to the duomo. It was late in the day by then, and many of the sites were nearing closing time. We opted not to go in, but instead used our time to walk around and see as much of the city as we could. We did some more shopping, and some more eating. The driver was scheduled to pick us up at 6:30 to head back to Florence. After relaxing and enjoying the weather in different places throughout the city, and exploring the many streets and back alley shops, we were more than ready for the trip back to Florence. We decided to do dinner on our own - without a recommendation, but paid for it with just so-so food at Trattoria Marione's. This restaurant was actually recommended to us as a great lunch spot for their soup, but I guess in comparison to the tour de force from the night before, anything would have seemed just so-so. I blame that on choosing the house wine instead of something a little more tasty.