Sicily - late March

Emilia-Romagna - early April

Tuscany, Florence - April 8

Umbria - late April

Florence - Birthplace of the Renaissance

I had made reservations for the Uffizi Art Museum in Florence before we left the U.S., so we were pretty much bound to the schedule that created. It was a good thing to do, but the timing wasn't great. Our tickets were for late Tuesday morning, so we left Ferrara early Monday and spent Monday day and night and most of the day Tuesday. Unfortunately quite a few things are closed on Monday, like the Boboli Gardens and the Pitti Palace, which houses a Medici collection and where King Emmanual II lived when Florence was the capitol of Italy in the mid-nineteenth century. And other attractions apparently close on the first Tuesday of any month with an "a" in it. Or something. We did okay anyway.

Since the train ride into Florence shows such good examples, this is probably as a good a time as any to talk about those gorgeous Mediterranean colors in Tuscany and Umbria (and to a certain extent in Emilia-Romagna) on houses, villas, palaces, and sometimes fortresses and towers. Every building is made of stone or brick.Then, for decorative purposes, a plaster coat is applied which is painted or whitewashed. The buildings can be painted in every hue from pale white through robust rose and bright yellow with a few pistachio shades here and there. There's a little blue, but to me it doesn't really look right, and purple? Never! The different drying times and absorbent qualities of the plaster makes those gorgeous variations in color. For the newer buildings, they often achieve the same effect with sponging or ragging or stenciling another color (or two) onto the base color. Anyway as most everyone knows, this is one of the most charming things about the Italian cities and countryside. That, and the mediterranean roof tiles in deep russet or brown and beige clay tones. Florence and its surroundings have all of these colors, both old and new, in abundance. Interestingly, when we got to the coast of Campania, where most everything is white houses and red tile roofs, Sheila said, "Now this is what the Mediterranean should look like." But she was in Spain several years ago, so maybe that was an influence.

Next, our lodgings. Dawn had found the Bed and Breakfast Agli Uffizi, brilliantly located just steps from the Duomo and the Uffizi Museum for just 80 euros a night for two (believe me, this is a great price for Florence). Our hostess was Nunzia (and the address is Via Porta Rossam, 3 if you want to know, but when I tried to find the web site for you, the B & B searcher says "This apartment is no longer available"). It was clean and airy, the only drawback was that it was one step up for every euro we paid, i.e., 80 steps up and 80 steps down several times a day. After a hard day of sight-seeing, that's a lot of steps. The breakfast wasn't much either--some instant tea or coffee, some plastic pastries about the shape and texture of a hot dog bun with a little smear of apricot jam in the middle and some juice.

And I also have to tell you that the food in restaurants was pretty dreadful and very expensive, even though we tried hard to get "off the beaten path," even trying a restaurant that Cindy had told us was authentic and excellent. Nope. In one little cafe I paid 13.50 euros for a half a tuna sandwich and a glass of wine. That's about $21. So don't go to Florence for the food, unless you have better information and more money than we had.

Most shocking to us were the roving bands of tour bus tourists--packs of Japanese, packs of Germans, packs of California Valley Girls, packs of French and Italian high school classes (it's time for their educational outings), packs of (I have to say it) fat, ugly Americans in Bermuda shorts and white tennis shoes. The Florentine government has limited the number of tour busses that can be in the city at one time, the school classes, everything they can think of, but they're still totally overrun. I wouldn't live there for piles and piles of money and I'm almost sorry I contributed to the mess. However.

The art in Florence is beyond anything you can imagine if you haven't been there. You don't even have to enter a museum or a church to be overwhelmed. And it's not just beautiful buildings, there are incredible sculptures and fountains every where you turn. All being photographed by hundreds of tourists, of course.

Anyway we did go to museums, about two hours at the Duomo Museum and about four hours at the Uffizi. We saw many wonderful things. There is actually a disease about Florence called the Stendhal syndrome. Some people, those who are particularly sensitive or impressionable they say, become overwhelmed at the art and faint or hallucinate or have heart palpitations. Fortunately, neither one of us is that sensitive. Although it was touch and go at the Uffizi. We avoided the syndrome by downing an entire bottle of wine between us in the cafe at the half-way mark to get through the last 30 rooms or so, to the Dürers. (It was pretty close to the most expensive bottle of wine I have ever bought, that should have given me palpitations; it was good though.) There were lots of people and lots of pigeons on the roof garden restaurant, really quite a lovely setting and the pigeons like the food, at least. In the gallery itself, I was most disappointed that the maps and globes room was closed; I was most enchanted with the Birth of Venus (Botticelli, 1482), Venus on the Half-Shell as she is fondly known by some. The Dürer's were also well-worth the trek. Well really, everything.

Then I was impressed by the four, yes four gift shop rooms full of tourist trash at outrageous prices. I had come to expect the museums to have nice souvenirs for nice prices. Nope, again. Oh and here's a hint for you. If you're ever tempted to take a four-year-old to the Uffizi, don't. And the gelato in central Florence was bad, too.

But enough whining. The art is incredible. Just keep that in mind and ignore all else. We actually had great time in the Duomo Works Museum, which was built as a workshop when they were building the Duomo, starting in 1296 and has an interesting display of tools, blocks and tackle, models and plans over the years, etc. Now it's used for works of art that belong to the Duomo, but are not displayed there currently. Lots of Duomos in Italy have such a museum and it's often more accessible and digestible than the Duomo itself. In this case, many of the outdoor sculptures have been moved inside to protect them from the elements and the pollution (yes, even in beautiful Florence). Michelangelo's Florence Pietà is there and two charming choir boxes (singing galleries, the Italians call them), one by Luca della Robbia and one by Donatello. And many other famous and gorgeous paintings, sculptures and tapestries. And it wasn't very crowded so was a good experience for me.

Ah, and the shopping is also pretty darned good. Leather, leather, leather is what you buy in Florence. So as not to spoil any family Christmas surprises, I will only say that Dawn bought a leather trench coat that will undoubtedly make her the most fashionable woman in Anchorage. Many other things were tempting, but we passed on the small David replica painted lime green with orange hair in all the anatomically correct places (44 euros wasn't the only reason). We did buy a grasshopper and a cicada made from grass from a nice Korean man on the street. This is also where the necklace that I borrowed from Carol (my son Kyle's partner) broke. But I didn't realize it, and it sort of held together and stuck to my skin, dropping pieces for quite a long time. So now there are black beads and little black carved fishes all over central Florence. Not a bad way to go if you're a necklace. (Sorry Mer, I understand you made this necklace.)

Oh, of course we walked across the Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge) over the Arno River and looked in all the very expensive jewelry shop windows. And I bought a pair of amber earrings from a street vendor. Oh, and we saw a man who looked so Italian that Dawn asked him if we could take a picture. And it turned out he was an Israeli, originally from the U.S. and he said to his wife, "See you didn't want me to buy this hat, but these girls like it." We all laughed, even us girls.

So that was Florence. Dawn and I went different directions soon after that, she and her gentleman friend went to Cinque Terre to hike and I travelled to Spoleto in Umbria for a few days alone before Kyle, Carol and Sam arrived. The adventure continues.