Buona sera from Livorno, Italy! The captain has just announced we are clear to sail, so we will be leaving this port shortly and heading south to Civitavecchia, the port for Rome.
It was raining steadily when we left the ship this morning for our day in Florence. It is about a 90 minute bus ride, and I slept a good part of the way. Our guide, Lunella, talked most of the way, telling us history of the region, Tuscany. I tried to listen, but I was tired. We had an early start and I got to bed kind of late.
Since it was rainy and the forecast was for temperatures in the mid to upper 50s, I dressed in layers: a long sleeve t-shirt under a short sleeve t-shirt, a denim jacket, and my raincoat, along with a scarf and my umbrella. I don’t like to be cold or wet. I was glad of all of those things as we walked from the bus into the Old City. A bus can absolutely not fit in those tiny little streets. There was about a 10 minute walk from the bus to the Santa Croce Cathedral which was our meeting place for later in the day.
MT and I had tickets to the Uffizi Gallery at 11:30, so we quickly found the museum and our ticket guy (I bought the no-waiting-in-line tickets from Viator). We actually did have to wait in a line, but only about 15 minutes. Once we got inside, we had to go through security. A quick story: while we were waiting to go through the scanner, a man started yelling really loudly. I thought there was going to be an international incident. It turns out a woman had perhaps accidentally spilled something into a drain and the security man freaked out. Scared the shit out of me.
We rented audio guides, then headed into the museum. We had to climb about 500 steps (I’m sure that is an exaggeration, but honestly, there were so many stairs). Remember, I am wearing layers upon layers of clothing plus my mask. When I finally reached the top floor, I was sweating and breathing heavily. I was carrying my jackets and umbrella. I didn’t realize there was a coat check I could have utilized. It was okay, though.
The Uffizi is enormous and it is chock-a-block full of art. Art on the ceilings, statues in the hall, paintings everywhere. At first we were going around to each bust and sculpture and looking at the art carefully, but we quickly realized we were not going to be able to see everything and we just started skimming and taking a bit more time to see the really cool stuff. For me, that was Botticelli’s “La Primavera” and “The Birth of Venus”. Stunning. We saw works by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raffaello, and Caravaggio. We totally lucked into seeing Caravaggio’s “Medusa”. We had been in the museum for about 90 minutes and we were feeling overwhelmed and ready to get out of there. Somehow we got to the second floor and were looking for exit signs. I saw a sign on a door that said “Caravaggio” so I dragged MT into the room, and there she was: Medusa with her snake hair just after her head has been severed, painted on a shield. Freaking awesome. I had forgotten that painting was in this museum. It would have been a regret to have missed it.
~ I won’t post any photos from the Uffizi here because 1) my photos of the beautiful paintings by Botticelli and Caravaggio will not do them justice and 2) I have an idea for a post about some of the art there that I will share later! ~
Once we got out of the Uffizi, I was kind of shell-shocked. I didn’t cry or faint, but I felt overwhelmed. I’m still kind of processing everything I saw. I will have more to say on this museum another time. It’s a lot.
The Uffizi is right next to the Piazza della Signoria which has many wonderful, famous, and great statues, including a replica of “David”. The statue is in the spot where the original David was, although the original is now safely inside the Accademia Gallery. We were thinking of going there, but we would not have had time. Seeing the replica in the square was good enough for me.
Our next must-see was, of course, The Duomo, Brunelleschi’s dome, and a real symbol of Florence on the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. Everything about the cathedral and it’s dome is MASSIVE. We didn’t go inside the church; the line for tickets and for entry was very long and we just couldn’t be bothered. We are going to Rome, after all, and we’ll be in churches there. I know, they are not all the same. We’ll go inside next time. We walked all around it, though, taking pictures and marveling at the size and beauty of it.
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| Giotto’s Bell Tower |
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| The Brunelleschi Dome (Il Duomo) |
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| The front of Santa Maria del Fiore. You can’t see the dome from this view. |
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| Florence! |
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| Santa Croce |
We stopped for a quick lunch in a sandwich shop. It was a damn fine sandwich, exactly what I wanted. We wandered around a little more. I wanted to see the Ponte Vecchio, but we misplaced the map and couldn’t figure out where the river was. To tell you the truth, I think we were kind of shell-shocked by Florence. There is so much to see and there are so many people and if you don’t know and have a game plan for the visit, it’s just too much.
My goals for the day were to go to the Uffizi where I did, in fact, see everything I wanted. I wanted to see the statue of David in the square. I wanted to see the Duomo and the Bell Tower. I wanted to buy a magnet, a post card, and a sweatshirt for T. I wanted to see the Ponte Vecchio. I wanted to have a gelato. It was nearly time to meet the group, and I still had two things on the list to be accomplished. I’d given up on the Ponte Vecchio, but was holding out hope for ice cream.
We started walking toward what we thought was Santa Croce. As it happened, we were slightly turned around and we ended up by the river so I got to see (the back side) of the Ponte Vecchio after all! We got re-oriented and found Santa Croce. There was still 10 minutes to spare, so I asked Lunella where a gelateria was. Luckily, there was one about a minute from where we were and the group would pass right by it on the way to the bus! MT and I scampered over and got a gelato: lemon for me, coconut for him. I was able to check off all the things on my Florence list today!
Also, when we left the Uffizi, it had stopped raining so hard. It was still cloudy, but at least we weren’t getting so wet. I didn’t have to use my umbrella after the morning. Now, as we are leaving Livorno, the skies are clear and the sea is calm.
Today’s step count = 15,455; 6.5 miles; 14 flights climbed
It’s the last night on the ship. Tomorrow morning we disembark and begin our stay in Rome!!
Thank you, Love Boat. It’s been fun.
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