Beatles and Medici

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Geo: 43.7687, 11.2569

This morning we checked out of Hotel Florida in Milan and headed to Milano Centrale F.S. to wait a bit and then board our FrecciaRossa train to Florence. It was a nice train and got up to speeds of 300 km/hour. The Alps and cornfields swept past our windows as we made it to Florence in record time of about 1.5 hours.

We walked from the Florence train station to our hotel in about 10 minutes. Hotel Accademia is unique in that it seems to be woven together from several different buildings and has random stairs up and down along the hallways. Now we are sitting on an outside patio and listening to live music from nearby San Lorenzo plaza. More on that later.

After a short rest we explored the inner area of Florence and were astounded at how close we were to them. The Chapel of the Medicis is around the corner. Pope Leo X and others are buried there. We walked a bit further to the Duomo (Brunelleschi's Dome) and baptistery and were taken aback by the colorful marble on the exterior of the building as well as the famous dome. We will be back to this site again soon.

A further walk led us to Ponte Becchio, a well-known bridge across the Arno river that features shops along both sides. Once we reached the other side our feet were tired and we headed back to our hotel for some rest before heading out to dinner.

Dinner was different. Goodbye pasta, hello steak. Rich was fed up with pasta and pizza and gawked at someone's steak when we first walked by the place. We let his nose to the walking and ended up right back there for dinner. The medium well Florentine rib steak would have been tartar at home. But it was tasty.

After dinner, we headed to San Lorenzo plaza, just outside the Medici Chapel, to hear an Italian band perform Beatles covers. It was pretty cool. We hope Pope Leo X enjoyed it just as much as we did. Rich's comment as we headed up the stairs to our hotel patio: "The Beatles and steak. I love Florence."

Tomorrow we have a full day planned that will begin with a walking tour of the main Florence sites, a visit to the Uffizi and Accademia. Three tours in less than 6 hours in mid-nineties weather should take a toll on us (32-33-ish Celsius).

Ciao!

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