One thing we have noticed about Italy, everything seems to go at a slower pace, that would include the high speed trains. We took a high speed train from Verona to Florence today, at times it just seemed like the train was travelling at the same speed as the train we took to Venice yesterday. We booked first class for several reasons, extra room for luggage, better seats, no annoying children, and yes we are travel snobs. However on this train forget the extra room, when we got on the train there was no luggage storage at the door like most trains. We had to haul all our bags to our seats which were facing each other. Robyn's 80 lb. carryon went in the overhead space and so did my rolling bag. Robyn's large bag had to go under the table between our seats leaving us with very little room for our feet. Robyn took a picture of her bag, the ****** shot is a freebie. The slower nature of the train was not helping, I will admit that after our stop in Bologna, the train did go at a higher speed. I am used to travelling on really high speed trains, like the Eurostar, the Thalys, and the Ice trains. The Ice went nearly 200 mph, we were going at the fastest at about 70 mph, oh well it is Italy.
We arrived in Florence at the secondary train station, when we got to the taxi stand no taxi's. In fact we had to wait about 20 minutes for a taxi, one finally came to drop a woman off and he agreed to take us to the hotel. Our hotel is in the center of Florence within walking distance of all the sites Robyn wanted to see. The hotel just reopened after a renovation and even though it is very upscale we got the room at a much cheaper price. I am happy, Robyn's happy. In fact they upgraded us to a junior suite, whoohoo.
A little history about Florence (I know less about Florence than Venice so hello Wikipedia). The city was originally a Roman settlement but post the fall of Rome became the Republic of Florence in 1115. It became a wealthy trading center and increased in power when the di Medici family became the rulers of the city in 1434. The di Medici family was one of the most powerful in Europe for the next 300 years producing 3 popes, and one Catherine di Medici who married the future Henry II of France and was Mary Queen of Scots mother-in-law. The family encouraged arts and scientific study, Leonardo da Vinci spent time here, Michelangelo did his most famous sculptures here, it became the center of the Renaissance as Europe came out of the high middle ages.Our first visit was to the Duomo also called the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Flowers. It was built between 1296 and 1436. The entry was free however to see any thing other than the inside of the cathedral there were additional fees. To me it is not worth seeing the other hidden parts of the cathedral. Once again there were dozens of tour groups going through that had paid to see everything. Each group had a guide that was giving a lecture about the place, so it gets a little noisy. Over the church audio comes a voice "SSHHHH Silenceo SSHHHHH", this went on for a few minutes, then was repeated. Now I am going to get back on my soapbox, shushing because there is noise is a bit hypocritical since the tickets were sold to tour groups that are making the noise. If this place is so reverent and important then don't sell tickets to make money. Okay got that off my chest. The Duomo is unbelievable on the outside but sort of plain on the inside. Robyn would ask me questions about the cathedral and I would answer in a bad Italian accent "I Duomo". After we left the Duomo we walked over to the San Lorenzo Cathedral, which was nearby, and went through it. This one we paid for but it included viewing the Laurentian Library designed and built by Michelangelo, and a museum. This cathedral was built for the di Medici family who also commissioned the library. In addition to the cathedral the di Medici's had a private chapel that was built on the back side of the cathedral. The reading room was the most fascinating part of the tour. The end of each reading bench contained a placard describing the subject matter in each bench and the manuscripts. All the manuscripts were chained in place and when some wanted to read it they would pull it up to the desk. The manuscripts are now stored in a secure area. This cathedral was just the opposite of the Duomo, plain outside but very beautiful inside. After we finished with the San Lorenzo it was time to head to the Academia museum. This is where Michelangelo's statue of David is displayed; it is impressive, almost as good as the one at Cesar's Palace in Las Vegas (okay just kidding). The detail carved into the marble is just flawless. Needless to say that was the best part of the Academia, the majority of the sculptures are actually plaster casts used as models for the originals. That wrapped up our day, it was actually pretty long and tiring. There are a few things still keeping us unsettled, one is we don't know if there is going to be a strike of the French air traffic controllers along with the train operators. Since we are not sure if we will make it out of Lausanne, Switzerland if we have to take the train on Friday we have made a hotel arrangement there. The rain that has been following us around Europe and even to Florence, is part of a larger system over central Europe that has caused flooding in Germany, northern and central France. This includes along the Loir River valley where we are supposed to go next week. Terrorists are not are problem it is striking workers in France and unpredictable weather. One last thing while we were in Verona Robyn was very allergic to pollen there, this has turned into a sinus infection, fortunately she has an antibiotic that she brought with her.