Florence....and then!

Florence

We went to Florence for the day. We decided to take the bus from Greve rather than drive and cope with parking which we'd heard can be difficult.

We started at the Duomo which is pretty impressive. The facade is made of pink, green and white marble. The colours change with the light and this photo in no way does justice to it.

The inside is more austere than the Siena Duomo but again the floor is made of amazing marble patterns.

A variation in cover-ups - this one being blue.
Better to bring a scarf like this lady and remove it afterwards.

A bride and groom in the Palazzo Vecchio with the statue of David - a copy in the background.
Yes it's me with the human pretend cupid outside the Uffizi Gallery. There were lots of people dressed as statues and it's hard to tell if some are real or not. This one took my fancy though.
We went to the Uffizi Gallery and decided to see only the most famous items. Now I know that might be a bit crass but we had limited time and these alone took about 2 hours. We did avoid museum overload in the process. The building itself is amazing with long corridors and windows that look out over the Arno River.
By booking ahead we paid an extra 3 Euros each but got a time to visit and avoided having to queue. We were a little surprised that there weren't more people around but we would still have had to queue for 30 - 45 minutes which was good to avoid.

I had to buy some gloves - well I was in Florence! The lady was really helpful and charming. I bought one pair with silk and one with cashmere lining. They are a steal compared to in Australia.

And then Bob decided to look at leather jackets - not to buy mind you - just to look. However he succumbed and got a very nice soft leather one in a versatile style.

Later in the day we went to the Galeria dell'Accademia and saw the sculpture of David. I've seen it before and loved it and it was the same this time. If ever I was going to swoon over an artwork this would be it. I love impressionist paintings but this is unbeatable. We went late afternoon - again booking and avoiding queuing. We were able to sit and look for about 30 minutes and even in that time it looked different in changing lights. It is beautifully displayed with a dome letting in light above. It is huge and weighs 6 tons. As Bob said it would not be possible to recreate it today even with the modern equipment that we have. Just focusing on one part at a time as well as a whole it is remarkable and stirring for me.

The guy in the leather shop recommended that we eat at a restaurant near but behind the Ponte Vecchio - the iconic bridge over the Arno. It originally had butcher's shops on either side and the leftovers were tossed into the river. This was stopped in the 16th century and it is now lined by jewellery stalls - most with very upmarket and intricate jewellery. Most of it not my taste - fortunately.
So we sat and had lunch behind the bridge and had an interesting view backward to it. Note the nice window box in the middle.
These chefs were resting as we left.

And of course we needed an ice cream later - this time at the end of the Ponte Vecchio.

Later when the shops shut the Ponte Vecchio became a scene for buskers and frivolity.
All in all a great day in Florence.
BUT WAIT.....

And Then

So we had a great day in Florence and painlessly achieved all we had set out to do. We congratulated ourselves as we returned to catch the bus on how challenging crowds and queues can be and our painless it all was for us – especially with a little forward planning thrown in. So yes it would be nice to coast home on the bus reflecting on a lovely day.

 We got to where we got off the bus in front of the railway station in plenty of time. We had our tickets ready and all seemed well. We had noticed that the bus in the morning did not have a number on it. Then it occurred to us that maybe the bus didn’t leave from the same place as it stopped. No problem we’d ask someone – which we did and got several “I don’t knows” and 3 definitive answers – only problem they were all different!

Then a bus driver told us to go to the Sita stop and pointed in a direction. We were now getting a little alarmed as we knew it was the last bus of the day that we were catching and the departure time 8.15pm was approaching. Then we saw a bus marked Sena stopped at traffic lights. We concluded, somewhat logically, that we had heard wrong and that this was our bus. However the driver would not let us on. Then we asked another bus driver who directed us a block away to the Sita terminal. We rushed there although knew we would probably miss it as it was now 8.20. We went to the ticket desk and asked about a bus to Greve. The ticket officer said “tomorrow” loudly and slammed down the window showing a closed sign.

Not daunted we went to the only bus that was left in the terminal. The driver told us he was going to         San Casciano which was 18 kilometers from Greve in 5 minutes. We had a quick discussion about whether we should stay the night in Florence or take this alternative and then a taxi. The driver agreed we could get a private car from there so all seemed not too bad and recoverable and we relaxed on the bus again thinking how smart we were. 

When we arrived at San Casciano we found a waitress outside a restaurant and asked where we could get a taxi. It is a reasonably large town and being Saturday night there were lots of people around in restaurants etc. The waitress said to wait and got the manager. He told us there were no taxis in this town. We had considered that possibility but I’d googled something on the bus which was in Italian but certainly mentioned taxis so we were reassured. And it was not such a small town. So then what to do - maybe stay the night here but where, walk - no too far and it was now dark. So we stood looking helpless I guess. 

The waitress came outside again and saw us and said she'd make a phone call. She was on the phone for ages to one or two places. We considered this to be very generous since we were not customers and she was working. She spoke loudly in Italian and eventually told us a taxi would come from Florence to get us in 30 minutes - oh the relief. We didn't hug her but nearly. So we waited confidently and found a shut cafe with an outside chair where we could sit. 30 minutes went by, then 45, 60.  This was not looking good. We didn't want to harass the waitress as it was not her problem. However after about an hour and a quarter she appeared and phone again and said the taxi would come in 10 minutes - and it did! We hopped in very gratefully and the driver hurtled on back roads to Greve. He spoke a little English and couldn't believe how silly we were to have a rental car and not use it. He told us there was a big soccer game on between Italy and Brazil that night and no taxi drivers wanted to work in Florence. 

And so we arrived back in Greve about 11.30 pm. The taxi charged us 100 Euros which covered his costs back to Florence as well. An expensive lesson but probably less than the less attractive alternative of staying somewhere else for the night.
What should we have done in retrospect - well! Enquired where the bus left from when we got off in the morning - YES that's true and we will next time. However we had been told by Elena in Greve to go to the end of the line near the railway station. We thought we'd done that when we stopped outside the railway station and everyone else on the bus got off. Catching a taxi straight from Florence would have been more direct as San Casciano is in a slightly different direction and the roads between are not as good even though it's closer in distance. However we had to make a snap decision and it seemed logical with the information we had. It was not predictable with the information we had that the bus would leave from 2 blocks away from where we caught it.
The pluses are we got back to Greve, found some nice people in the restaurant in Sac Casciano who helped us from the goodness of their hearts, didn't have a major argument between us about whose fault it was and it gets funnier and a better story the more time goes on.