June 10

AAUUUGH!  4:45 A.M. Who planned this trip anyway? Our cab was waiting for us as were Kevin and Gina who hitched a ride with us.  We had heard bad things about airport security in Edinburgh and even at that time of the day it was not exactly a walk through, but we did have plenty of time in the end to catch our three-hour flight to Florence, Italy.  I have to say the cab service in Edinburgh is flawless and pretty cheap.  Seemed like everywhere we went it was about $7-$8.  The cabs were clean and hybrid.  Again, Scotland is on the leading edge of cleaning up this earth it seems.

Slept a bit on the flight and arrived in Florence, caught a cab to our hotel De Lanzi and since it was booked so long ago, we didn’t remember that we were just a block from the Duomo and the Piazza.  Our room was thankfully ready so we could dump our luggage and take a breather before making our way to the Uffizi.  Because I was on a tour with my chorus the last time I was in Florence, and because it was 100F most of the trip everywhere we went, I didn’t remember that everything was so close together.   At the time it seemed like we were walking through hell.  (How we performed everywhere in our concert regalia is still a mystery to me).

Our 3 p.m. ticket to Uffizi was perfect as the morning crowd was gone.  So much I had forgotten.  Practically every painting is some depiction of biblical events.  I have now seen more examples of The Annunciation, Crucifixion, Mary hanging with baby Jesus while the future John the Baptist clamored for her attention as well.  Where Elizabeth was while her son was harassing Mary, I do not know, although she was older and was probably taking a nap somewhere, and Mary being Mary, said “I got this”. The Ufizzi is also where I was reminded that I need to not neglect my back exercises.  Fast walking I can do, slow walking and standing becomes torture after awhile!  And unlike in the Scotland museum, the places to sit and take a break are few and far between.  And not all that helpful anyway once the back has decided it’s had enough.  Note to self: carry Tylenol with you each day just in case.  Apparently I took no photos in the Uffizi.  See above: Wedding, early flight, dead tired.  We were there, honest we were.

The rest of the day is kind of a blur in my memory which makes for such interesting blog writing.  We did have gelato for snack and then pizza for dinner on the Piazza under the shadow of the Dome et al.  We took a walk out to view Ponte Vecchio, just after sunset and it was lovely.   Ponte Vecchio is a medieval bridge over the Arno River in Florence and is notable because shops were built on it way back when, specifically actual necessities like food, versus now it is tourist stops.   The beautiful bridges in Florence were bombed on one night during WW II as the Germans retreated – lovely way to leave even more of a “we are assholes” mark on history – but this one remained.  Various stories roll around as to why this is so – from Allied tanks would collapse it anyway to “Hitler liked it”.  That seems unlikely but according to http://www.destinationflorence.com he did like art and had visited there a few years earlier with his good pal Mussolini.  There is also the tale of an old man who knew where the wires were, and his assistant dismantled them all.  At any rate, the bombing that night really irked the  Florentines and resulted in the Battle of Florence.  Kind of a cool story actually.   The Allies were on their way to liberate Florence and on August 11 every church bell rang and rallied thousands of people to clear out the riff raff as best they could ahead of the Allies arrival.   

I am realizing that a WW II tour of Europe would be quite enlightening, but I’ll have to leave that to library book travel.  Stories like these, however, are heartening in their testament to courage.     

Oh! How could I forget? We were resting midday, and we heard drumming from somewhere over in the direction of the piazza.  Sounded like a parade.  I did a Google search and found out it was a drum parade  – I’m still not quite sure what it was all about.  We quickly got up and followed the sound – which was closer now – and saw marchers in every type of Renaissance costumes you can imagine.  Feathers and armor and berets and who knows what all.  I include some photos.  We felt quite fortunate to be there when this was happening!  

Other than walking around and enjoying the warm weather after blustery Scotland, I don’t recall much more about that first day. I did buy a selfie stick from a kiosk in the piazza. Always hated those things but now that I am (mostly) committed to not taking random photos without Al or me in them, it’s kind of a necessity. There is a learning curve, though…