This week and last week we took day trips to Florence. It’s fairly easy to take the train from Borgo and be in Florence in less than 45 minutes, but with the heat and the added convenience of not having to check the time all day, we opted to drive in instead. We’re only about 25 kilometers north of Florence so it’s a quick 30 minute trip from our door to the parking lot on some very narrow roads where the distance from the side of the car to the houses is not even the length of an arm. Yeah, it’s really close.
Temps have been around 90 degrees the last two weeks so Florence was extra steamy from being closer to sea level, the onslaught of tourists, and just heat radiating from pavements and buildings. Everywhere we turned we were greeted with lines of tourists waiting to get into churches, museums, or monuments. We chose to go to the Boboli gardens, intentions were good but it wasn’t well executed. The Boboli is an open-air museum, not the pizza you create at home, that was completed in the 1500’s and in addition to taking up
The Boboli is an open-air museum, not the pizza you create at home, that was completed in the 1500’s and in addition to taking up some massive real estate in the center of Florence, it boasts a huge collection of sculptures, features many fountains and a has a huge variety of trees. Within seconds of entering the grounds, we realized it required walking up pathways in the exposed hot sun.
Parched, perspiring profusely and possibly nearing heat stroke, we kept ascending thinking we would soon be in the vicinity of a café that would provide us with cool, refreshing water. But with each pathway, we were left disappointed. We did finally find a vending machine, but by then I was completed drenched, so over the entire experience, and ion a desperate search for shade. Fritz soldiered on while I descended and hunted down a cool stone bench to sit on and gulp down the rest of, by now, my lukewarm beverage. Afterwards, reading up on the Boboli and all the things I missed, I came upon this very funny yet sad statement on one of the websites, “(Boboli) offers peaceful shelter from the warm Florentine sun in summer”, good luck finding the handful of spots that offer relief since there really aren’t that many. I look forward to visiting this place in the future, but preferably in the spring or fall this very beautiful place in the fall or winter.
After lunch, we headed to the Uffizi. We had reserved tickets for 2:30 hoping we wouldn’t have to stand in line for too long. We stood in one line for a while, only to be told we had to go across the streets to pick up our tickets. At the ticket office, we stood in line waiting our turn to retrieve our tickets and then crossed back and stood in line waiting to be let in for the 2:30 reservation all while roasting in the Florentine sun. Once were inside, we were greeted with swarms of people, huge groups and lots of selfie sticks. Once we got to the top floor where most of the collection is kept, some of the rooms were so steamy that I within seconds of entering I could feel the sweat accumulating, anticipating the plop of a drop streaming down my back.
Needless to say, I missed quite a bit but was grateful to see as much as I did. I was pleasantly surprised when I realized that the 2nd floor but especially the 1st floor had vast collections that not many people were interested in (the Botticelli’s were on the 3rd floor) making for a more pleasant experience, plus the lower floor was also cooler.
And now some more ranting……summer travel is an oxymoron in my book. Who thinks traveling and vacationing in the summer is a good idea? Between the heat, the crowds, and the sweat it can turn a somewhat enjoyable summer day into one hot mess.
I don’t know about you but sweating profusely and then going to eat lunch or visiting a museum or even shopping are not things I want to be doing when a cool shower is what should be the next activity.
This week when we went to Florence, we had absolutely no plans to sightsee. Instead, we were going to walk around, get some lunch, and maybe do some shopping. While the shopping part didn’t pan out, we did have an amazing lunch – and I found a new carb favorite, panzanella (see below), which is a bread salad made with tomatoes, basil and onions (but can really be anything you want), dressed with olive oil and a little vinegar…. and caught some shots of the Duomo along with the hundred of other tourists. It was still a hot day, but nice to not be pressured to sightsee.
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