{"id":15597,"date":"2025-11-06T04:11:43","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T09:11:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/?p=15597"},"modified":"2026-01-10T16:29:00","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T21:29:00","slug":"atw-2-day-25-florence-italy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/2025\/11\/06\/atw-2-day-25-florence-italy\/","title":{"rendered":"ATW-2 Day 25: Florence, Italy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The day started with the complimentary breakfast at the hotel, served in a rock-walled room directly below our apartment. A very good breakfast. We chatted with a group of 6 from Lincoln NE who were staying at the hotel for a full month. They loved Italy and Tuscany in particular. For one it was her 12th visit to Italy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They gave us advice on how to get into Florence and we took it: drive to Scandicci, find a place to park and take the tram to the railway station in Florence. Which is what we did. On the way down the mountain we encountered a car and had to back up to let us pass. That had Marlene cursing again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were fortunate to find a free parking spot only a few hundred yards from the tram station. Figuring out how to get a tram ticket took only a few minutes and we had to wait only a few minutes more for the tram (aka “light rail” or “trolley”) to arrive. The ride to Florence took about 20 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The train station has a huge underground shopping mall, complete with a video tunnel. In the course of shopping (nothing bought) I somehow managed to lose the cloth bag we had brought with us (empty except for stale bread for the pigeons). We spent a few minutes searching for it, unsuccessfully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our walking destination was the Piazza del Duomo<\/a>, the heart of Florence. On the way we spent some time in the Piazza di Santa Maria Novella<\/a>. Marlene wanted to see the interior of the basilica <\/a>there but there was an entrance fee. Nothing pisses Marlene off more than churches that charge entrance fees. We didn’t go in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Video tunnel at the train station<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Piazza Santa Maria Novella<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The cathedral in the Piazza del Duomo (Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore) – and the building that gives the plaza its name – was free to enter. It was beautiful and I loved the fresco on the dome. But after seeing the ornate cathedrals in France it felt empty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other huge building in the square – the Baptistry of St John<\/a> – also charged a fee and we also skipped it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Baptistry of St John<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Cathdral<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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About to enter the cathedral<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Inside the cathedral<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The dome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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One of many statues<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When we exited the cathedral we walked toward the river. We found the plaza with the Galleria della’Accademia<\/a> where Michaelangelo’s status of David <\/a>is located. But the entrance fee was exorbitant and the entry was timed so we passed. But the plaza had an open-air gallery of some very impressive statues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We finally made it to the river and it was beautiful. A perfect day, weather-wise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As close as we got to David<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Marlene and fountain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Statue<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Statue<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Statue<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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At the river<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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River with pigeon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Ponte Vecchio<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Ponte Vecchio<\/a> – a bridge with high-end shopping – spans this river. We walked to it but only to look. On the way there Marlene fell off the curb and, fortunately, escaped with only a scraped knee. She could easily have broken a bone so we felt fortunate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the way back to the train station we encountered another church – the Chiesa di Santa Trinita<\/a> – and it was quite lovely. We encountered a few other interesting buildings and sights along the way but finally made it back to the train station. We took the tram back to the car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Outside<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Inside<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Altar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Another museum<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Obelisk<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We wanted to get some bread and we had been told of several markets in Galuzzo, a little town south of our hotel. Going there not only got us some bread (at a huge supermarket with underground parking) but also let us approach the hotel from another direction. The roads on this approach were less intimidating than the other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We had dinner of ramen and sausage in our apartment. Then we played cards and I lost again, 0-3. Then I blogged and edited photos. Lots of photos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a good day in Florence. We logged over 14,000 steps. And my back, though aching, was less painful than in Venice. Healing, I hope.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The day started with the complimentary breakfast at the hotel, served in a rock-walled room directly below our apartment. A very good breakfast. We chatted with a group of 6 from Lincoln NE who were staying at the hotel for a full month. They loved Italy and Tuscany in particular. For one it was her … Continue reading »<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[121,135,136],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-atw","category-atw-2","category-italy"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1VniU-43z","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15597"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15929,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15597\/revisions\/15929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}