November 1997 & December 2000

During our stay in Rome in 1997, we took the train to Florence for a day trip. And in 2000, we stopped off in Florence for about a day and half between our stays in Venice and Rome. The train to and from Florence is always enjoyable since you can take in sweeping views of the countryside with grapevines and rocky ledges.

Florence is small and quaint in comparison to Rome. Where Rome feels like an empire, Florence feels like a tribute to the Renaissance. And its inhabitants were noteworthy - Michelangelo, Brunelleschi, Botticelli, Donatello, Dante, Machiavelli, Petrach and Raphael.

We toured the marble-filled Duomo (the cathedral is Europe's fourth largest church) on both trips and even descended into the basement to view the crypts underground. Outside the Duomo stands the Baptistery, an octagonal-shaped building just in front of the cathedral. The baptistery's bronze doors are amazing in their craftsmanship and beauty and equally impressive is the story depicted on each set of doors. On our second trip, we were able to view the inside of the Baptistery. It is extremely small and ornate and the ceiling is filled with mosaics illustrating the Last Judgment.

Heading south, we lingered in the the Piazza de la Signoria with its burbling fountain, the Fontana di Nettuno. Also of note in the square are the Roman statues in the Loggia, including The Rape of the Sabine Women by Giambologna. We also checked out the Campanile (remember the gory fall to death in the movie "Hannibal?") and marveled at the artwork in the Uffizi gallery, which is next to the Palazzo Vecchio. Don't miss the Birth of Venus in the Uffizi.

Lunch was at the funky La Grotto Guelfa (not to be confused with the traffic-ridden avenue, Via Guelfa, where we mistakenly hoteled) and we were duly impressed with the chicken piccata. During our second trip, we ate at Buca dell' Orafo and a nondescript place on the way back to our hotel.

After lunch we wandered through some shops and checked out the teeny houses perched on the Ponte Vecchio spanning the Arno River. We ventured briefly across the Arno, home of the Pitti Palace and other notable sites. On both trips, we've missed out on these attractions.

To walk off the food coma from lunch, we explored the streets in and around the Piazza della Repubblica and almost fell prey to some souvenir stands in the Mercato Nuovo. Next time we will be sure to walk a little further and stop into the San Lorenzo parish church to check out Michelangelo's Biblioteca staircase.

Later that afternoon, we squeezed into the Galleria dell' Accademia before it closed for the day. The Accademia holds Michelangelo's statue of David, and well, I guess I didn't realize how big it is. The thing is huge and his privates are monster-sized too. We were very impressed with the intricacy and level of detail in the statue and spent quite a bit of time circling the beast.

After meandering around town and shopping a bit (the leather shops were cool, but the wares were always cut wrong or too small for my 5'11" frame), we gave up and headed to the Irish pub that overlooks the Duomo.