We have a new family tradition and I highly recommend it! We travel to someplace in Europe for 4 days in some really interesting city where it isn't a holiday for the rest of the world. Oh sure, the weather might be a little dicey, but there are no lines and being away from home makes home seem all that much closer.
We used our trusty Rick Steves and DK guides to find a really nice hotel,just about two blocks from the piazza. Our first meal was a fire smoked pizza at Trattoria Nerone Pizza where we were entertained by an author who writes about early American history in the context of the world events, in Italian of course. He was working as a waiter while he was preparing to move to France, where he was going to start on a new book. (Unfortunately, I wrote his name in my pda, which is now dead, so I can't tell you that info.)
Our first day in Florence started with a guided walking tour of the old city. About 60 folks showed up for the tour, but they broke us into two groups and off we went. The two hour tour was pretty good. One funny thing, according to our guide, all tour companies must be escorted by an Italian person, so we had an English speaking guide (I think American) and an Italian escort. (See the photo.) The Italian woman never said a word to the group, except to chat with the guide and the various vendors along the way.
Everyone in Florence spoke English with a lovely Italian accent and were quite friendly and helpful. While strolling around we stopped in a chess game store. The owners offered us a glass of wine as we looked and we discussed where they and we have lived.
This was the big Florence Marathon that happened while we were there. It was fun to see runners winding through the narrow streets of Florence surrounded by amazing statues and architecture. Not to mention the open air markets and designer leather product show windows.
The Pont de Vecchio is the diamond sellers street and spans the Arno River. We were told this wasn't the best place to buy diamonds (yeah, like we were in the market for that).
We were focused on food, Caravaggios and hopefully a trip to Tuscany. We accomplished all that. We were warned to make reservations for the Uffizi, but we didn't. We went in around 4:30 p.m. and there was virtually no line. (Of course it was November, not June). We had a really nice Thanksgiving meal at Open Bar but no turkey. Just really great Italian food.
The Caravaggios are the last three paintings in the Uffizi and there were a couple of more at the Pitti Palace. We also went to the Academia to see the David. There was an amazingly beautiful 16th century tapestry there, as part of a special exhibit, and they wouldn't let us take photos there.
The weather was grey, cold and often spitting grain, but that wasn't so bad and didn't get in the way of the great trip.
We did spend a day in the countryside, at a beautiful Tuscan villa where they grow grapes for Chianti and olives for oil. Then we had lunch where we (a group of 12) made the pasta by hand, and a lovely Italian woman made the sauce and side dishes.
This was through a group called the Accidental Tourist. I don't think we would recommend these as guides for someone who really is curious about stuff (the guides were young, inaccurate and not really all that entertaining), but the trip was really nice.
