Florence 2024 - Day 2

Wednesday, 03 July 2024 – Day 2

The old-fashioned capsule machine is spraying coffee, so we have a coffee in Florence as planned. We go out onto the terrace, the sun is shining, so we take off our T-shirt. Then Jack , the house dog, a Jack Russell Terrier, comes by and immediately feels at home with Lisa.

It is now slightly cloudy with pleasant temperatures, so we head into the city and after driving around once we enter the underground car park Sant Ambrogia ( Firenze Parcheggi , also available as an app: FiPark ). Right behind the market, the nice Cibrèo Caffè is perfect for our Italian breakfast: Cappuccini e croissant crema/lamponi.

Once we have fortified ourselves, we walk through the small streets to the largest Franciscan church in the world: Santa Croce . This is where Michelangelo and Galileo Galilei have their tombs. We then stroll across the Piazza della Signorina past the Palazzo Vecchio to the Ponte Vecchio and examine the Vasari Corridor from the outside. To fortify ourselves, we head to the rooftop bar in the Rinascente with a view of the dome, which we will climb on Friday.

We booked a small group tour (10-15 people) in German for the Uffizi , but the tour guide was late. The sun was blazing down, we were given two bottles of water while we waited, and then Veronika arrived, a South Tyrolean who has lived here for 11 years. Since no one else had booked this tour, we got a private tour of the Uffizi in German. Just for the two of us - perfect!

Veronika leads us past Michelangelo's David (a copy in front of the Palazzo Vecchio) to the Uffizi. On the way, she tells us a lot about the Renaissance and the history of the Medici and, almost unnoticed, she is given the entrance tickets as we walk along. We are through the security check and inside without having to wait. She shows us the highlights and tells us a lot about Giotto, Michelangelo, Botticelli and also the unfinished painting by Leonardo da Vinci.

Just around the corner we have a look around the Galileo Galilei Museum and then finally some gelato to fortify ourselves for the shopping trip: Brandy Melville, Candy-Lisa, Subdued. With analogue navigation on the 69 computer we land right at the garage and are happy that we only paid 17.50 euros for the whole day. Great!

On the way home we look for a COOP and after driving around it we park in a parking space on a restricted area at the "egg roundabout" next to all the other parked Italians and do our grocery shopping. Off we go into the Italian evening traffic - I am fully assimilated. Wonderful, it makes you young and keeps you young.

At home, I eat prosciutto con melone and Chianti Rufina 2022 from the house and make phone calls and write in my notebook. The swifts are circling, there are all kinds of animal noises (especially the cicadas and the meowing peacocks) and nothing else. 18 thousand steps and bedtime at 10.