{"id":7438,"date":"2007-05-18T16:07:19","date_gmt":"2007-05-18T23:07:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alephnaught.com\/Blog\/?p=7438"},"modified":"2011-12-09T05:32:12","modified_gmt":"2011-12-09T13:32:12","slug":"florence-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alephnaught.com\/Blog\/2007\/05\/18\/florence-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Florence"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

We were going to go to Pistoia today, but we decided we’d moved around enough. And, we didn’t sleep well last night – getting to bed (for us) late due to the noise outside didn’t help. We’re changing rooms today to move to the rear of the hotel – not a nice view but much quieter we believe.<\/p>\n

We headed towards the Arno from the hotel. We took some pictures of the outside of the <\/a>Orsanmichele, which is just outside the hotel.<\/p>\n

\"Ceramic <\/a>
Ceramic detail <\/div> <\/div>
\"Ceramic <\/a>
Ceramic detail <\/div> <\/div>
\"Orsanmichele <\/a>
Orsanmichele facade detail <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Orsanmichele <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

We walked towards Piazza Republica; I gave some change to a woman just starting to rough in a picture in pastel of a woman on the street. We stopped at our favorite cermics shop, <\/a>Galleria Machiavelli (Via Por S. Maria 39r) and bought a few things; Aviva wants to redecorate the mantle over the fireplace, and Italian ceramics seem to be a key to her plan.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/a>
A ceramic pitcher from Galleria Machiavelli <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"A <\/a>
A small child’s bust from Galleria Machiavelli <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

We crossed the <\/a>Ponte Vechio, which was originally used by butchers but, due to the smell, changed by the Medicis to jewelers.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/a>
A view down the Arno from the Ponte Vechio <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"The <\/a>
The water fountain on the Ponte Vechio <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

We turned right off the Ponte Vechio and stopped at a jeweler’s shop; Aviva bought a cameo ring, and we were to return at 6 PM as it needed to be resized. I looked across the street at a store selling chess sets.<\/p>\n

We continued walking towards the Pitti Palace, turned right and ate a very nice lunch at a small trattoria that was serving a lot of the local workmen, located near Santo Spirito. After lunch we went to the Pitti Palace to go to the <\/a>Boboli Gardens, which is behind the palace; entry was free (May 12 – 20).<\/p>\n

The first grotto, Moses Grotto, is just past the entrance. The Grottos at the Gardens were designed like ancient Roman caves, as places for resting and meditating.<\/p>\n

\"Cherub <\/a>
Cherub in the fountain water <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Cherubs <\/a>
Cherubs in the fountain water <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"The <\/a>
The ceiling of the grotto <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"The <\/a>
The main fountain along with the statue of Moses <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Aviva and I walked up the first level but then she chickened out and went back to the bookstore; I walked all the way up to the top, where there’s a small museum of the china and dining decorations from the Medici.<\/p>\n

\"Aviva <\/a>
Aviva in front of the Duomo <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Aviva <\/a>
Aviva with a statue <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"The <\/a>
The cafe <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"A <\/a>
A cat running around the Gardens <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"The <\/a>
The Neptune fountain <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"The <\/a>
The housewares museum <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"The <\/a>
The statue at the top of the hill <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Two <\/a>
Two statue runs lead you up the hill <\/div> <\/div>
\"Four <\/a>
Four turtles hold up the plynth <\/div> <\/div>
\"A <\/a>
A view behind the Boboli Gardens from the top <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"A <\/a>
A view up the hill <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

I got a wonderful panorama of the city of Florence from a hill in the Gardens.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A panorama of Florence from the Boboli Gardens - note the Duomo and the tower from the Palazzo Vechio to the right.<\/p><\/div>\n

We walked to Grotto Grande, which is the most famous one – we couldn’t go inside though.<\/p>\n

\"Aviva <\/a>
Aviva before the Grotto Grande <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Grotto <\/a>
Grotto Grande <\/div> <\/div>
\"The <\/a>
The ceiling <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

On the way out we found a statue of Morgante the dwarf riding a turtle. When I walked up to it a woman was photographing it. I told her I looked like him, and she said no, I didn’t. So I told her she was right, I didn’t have a turtle.<\/p>\n

\"Morgante <\/a>
Morgante the dwarf on a turtle <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Morgante <\/a>
Morgante the dwarf on a turtle (with me) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

We walked around for a while, then went back to the shop,<\/a> Elli Peruzzi at Borgo San Iacopo, 48, to pick up Aviva’s cameo ring.<\/p>\n

\"Aviva's <\/a>
Aviva’s new ring <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"The <\/a>
The shop where we bought the ring <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

I bought a chess set from the shop across the street. We walked over to the open air market by Piazza Republica and bought a few things. We walked back the way we came in the morning and found the woman finishing up her pastel street drawing – like the sand mandalas, it goes away in the evening when the streets are cleaned.<\/p>\n

\"The <\/a>
The artist <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"The <\/a>
The drawing <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

We dropped stuff off at the hotel and had a nice dinner a couple of blocks away.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
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We were going to go to Pistoia today, but we decided we’d moved around enough. And, we didn’t sleep well last night – getting to bed (for us) late due to the noise outside didn’t help. We’re changing rooms today to move to the rear of the hotel – not a nice view but much […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[680,77,143],"tags":[60,1044,1043,1029],"class_list":["post-7438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-florence-italy-travel","category-italy","category-travel-foreign","tag-florence","tag-galleria-machiavelli","tag-moses-grotto","tag-rome-and-florence-2007"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2w3Qj-1VY","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alephnaught.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alephnaught.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alephnaught.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alephnaught.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alephnaught.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alephnaught.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7438\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alephnaught.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alephnaught.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alephnaught.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}