Italy with Kids - Florence 1

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21 Sept 2008

We decided to skip the hassles of driving and this time took the train in. First we had to work out which platform (binari), and what time, because the normal timetable was only for the weekdays. We hadn't noticed the helpful monitor by the ticket office, so ended up fretting for half an hour hoping there actually would be a train. Well of course there was, so 25 minutes later we were at the train station in Florence and heading for the Arno river.

On foot the map distances looked a little daunting, for us walking with the kids, and not being familiar with the layout we didn't head in any organised direction, but did end up at the Piazza della Signora after siting the Ponte Vecchio.

There we spent some time admiring the statues - all of them immensely impressive in real life, the size and form just not adequately represented in pictures or even TV. My favourite was of two men holding a woman up in the air - I must find out its name. Kylie's was of Perseus holding Medusa's head (which I included later on the 26 September blog).



We went into the Palazzo Vecchio, after a bit of a wait to clear the security checkpoint. Tickets €7 and we viewed statues, enormous paintings, antique furnitire, interesting frescoes in the halls, and guilded carved and painted ceilings.



From there we headed for the Cattedrale and I was quite taken away. I think I had deliberately avioded pictures of Florence so as not to have preconceived ideas about what I'd see, and it worked. The Cattedrale, Baptistry and tower are immense structures with green, red and white marble exterior with extensive decoration in depth and shape. Like the statues, the scale of these buildings can't really be perceived from a picture, although I'll include one here for reference. I've found great enjoyment in walking around these great structures and seeing the difference in perspective against the sky and other buildings in the area.



Kylie got some shots of the east door of the baptistry, the so-called Door of Paradise, and then climbed Giotto's campanile (bell tower) with Joseph. While they were up there, Liam and I amused ourselves by watching the black-market salesman setting up sheets to display their wares, and then grabbing them up and racing off when a policeman appeared.




After the climb, Liam and Joseph had their caricatures drawn
by a sketch artist. We then headed off towards the Ponte Vecchio, with the idea of visiting the Boboli Gardens for something different to do. After a reasonably lengthy walk (note here: lots of crowds of people even this late in the season), we arrived at the Pitti Palace to find that if we wanted to see the Gardens it was €10ea, which included a couple of smaller museum displays, while the other main attraction, being the palace, was €12ea. So we just took tickets for the Boboli Gardens and the kids started climbing the hill.

ok I'll be a bit frank here: first of all, the gardens were almost entirely grass or large hedges, secondly, you weren't allowed on the grass, and thirdly, the park down the road from us at home is in far better condition than these gardens (minus the statues and fountains of course), so no, I was not impressed. We didn't hang around for long, the kids finding the place equally unimpressive, and having already done a fair bit of walking we didn't want to go downhill to the western part of the park because then we'd have to walk back uphill again.

We'd pretty much worn ourselves out after that, so made our way back to the train, where we again spent some time working out which train was actually leaving and going to the right place. A little hint here: although there are no places to sit in the terminus, if you grab a snack at the large caffeteria, you can sit in the back away from all the noise.

So the day ended with mixed feelings, but having two separate days, Kylie and I will get the hang of it.

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