Walking Man (Florence, Day 2)

No sleep in today, dear reader. The reworked plan has us down at the Arno in the morning and then visiting several churches across Florence and for diversity, a library, before ending up at the English Cemetery. A round trip of over 10km. At some point we are pausing for coffee and a bite to eat. And no doubt a beer around lunch time.

We were out the door at 8:30am. Oh, don't go on, dear reader; that's early when you're just attuning to a new time zone. The streets are much less crowded at that time of the morning, although the snaking lines of sheep following flags were still about. We were down by the Arno in no time to take some snaps of the Ponte Vecchio. You could clearly see how jammed it was with people already. The Santa Trinita bridge is supposed to be one the best spots from which to photograph the famed Ponte Vecchio. Maybe at dawn, or in the twilight hours. Otherwise you are shooting straight into the sun. I managed better photos last visit from further up river.

Ponte Vecchio from the  Santa Trinita.

Looking in the other direction.

First item ticked off the list, it was time to double back to the Sassetti Chapel, a hundred metres or so down the road. We stood outside the door to read the information panel. The most important part was: Closed Tuesday. Yes, it's Tuesday. Jayne was not happy. In the reorganisation of today's trek through Florence, she had studiously checked each website to ensure they were open and at what time.

Read it and weep.

Item 2 on the list. A big red cross. What we missed was a notable series of frescoes depicting the life of St Francis of Assisi. Maybe next time.

Not today.

On to our next destination which was the Biblioteca. Well, we were both English teachers in another life. The real reason this was a destination ... they have a café, thinking breakfast. Moreover, the café has a view directly across to the Duomo. After misreading the 'do not enter' sign on the lift, we trudged up the three stories. The people in the café were enthusiastic in their welcome and we settled on our order and went back outside and up a couple of stairs to the open area that looked across to the cathedral.

Worth the climb?

To be honest I expected more. The vista of the Duomo is vast and mostly uninterrupted, but I foolishly thought we may be higher and see more of the cathedral itself. Anyway, the panini were very good and the coffee most welcome. Checking the lift signage again I noticed, this time, that the 'do not enter' was in case of fire. Jayne caught the lift down to the ground floor.

Three down. Our next stop was the Basilica della Santissima Annunziata. The square outside the church has been used in a number of films about Florence. Inside the rather uninspiring building is an amazing opulent space. It had more than a dozen lavish side altars, the ceiling blazed with gold, the feature above the tabernacle was a silver construction and reflected light into darkened spaces. It was unusual and breathtakingly extravagant.

A fresco in the portico.

Looking towards the altar.

We waited outside for the service or singing practice to conclude before entering - despite the website stating it was open from 8:00am till 12:30pm, there were signs blocking access. As we were leaving as mass was about to commence and the 'do not enter' signs were back in place. I stepped aside as one couple just moved around the sign to enter the church and I'm pretty sure they weren't there to pray.

No idea who this is, but I love the sneer.

The baldachin (the ceiling fresco above the altar).

As religious fervour overtook me, we commenced our journey to our next destination, Sant'Apollonia. Things were going smoothly despite the rocky start, but Jayne's paper map is not drawn to scale and certainly doesn't show all the streets. So, we ended up walking quite an unnecessary distance because we followed the map. In the heat.

We arrived at Sant'Apollonia, the fifth stop on our list. It is the home to a cloistered order of Benedictine nuns. They have opened up the former refectory because it contains frescos and art works that are worth the extra effort to find. We were the only visitors at the time. The person overseeing entry was more than helpful and Apollonia the kitten was happy to see us too.

The resident cat Apollonia.

The main attraction was not the kitten (sorry Min) but a painting of the Last Supper by Andrea del Castagno. It was painted well before the famous da Vinci version and is considered the first Renaissance depiction of this subject matter.

The other Last Supper.

This concluded our morning meandering because our last destination did not open its gates until 3pm. We headed for the hotel and a watering hole on the way. The latter proved to be no easy task and we ended up in our 'eat street' 100 m from home. The young person serving was lovely and we chatted about our afternoon's destination and where we might have dinner, as we enjoyed our hard earned beer.

No need for a caption.

We had a brief respite from the sun, back at the hotel before setting out once again for the last attraction on our list. Perhaps attraction is not the right word. I did not know this place existed when we were last in Florence, although it certainly did. It's been there since the mid 1800s. I'm referring to the English Cemetery that I first heard referenced in the film Tea with Mussolini. It's most famous resident is Elizabeth Barrett Browning. You know, of "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways" fame.

The cemetery is about 1.5km form the hotel and Florence is flat so it should have been an easy walk. Except the footpaths are not really made for pedestrian traffic; they are too narrow. So it was a journey of ducking and weaving, on the pavement, on the road, cross the road, until we arrived at a massive road redevelopment. It was like a medieval castle moat and separated us from the cemetery.

From the entrance.

Fortunately there was a barricaded way through. It reminded me of the mazes we used run the rats though at uni (first year Psych). Once the traffic was negotiated, the cemetery opened before us and proved to be, well, underwhelming. It was smaller than expected - one side of a hill. It was also packed (with occupants, not tourists) and navigating between graves was no easy task. The gardeners had obviously been through recently with the brushcutter, but that was about the extent of the upkeep.

EBB's tomb.

Ms Barrett Browning's tomb was easily located to the side of the main walk. We had much more difficulty locating Edith Piaf in Père Chase in Paris. Old cemeteries always hold such interesting information about the time period, but not this one. Headstones were difficult to read and may have provided some information about the time period, but like those buried beneath, it was lost in time.

And that was our big day of walking. We clocked up around 12km. Which brings us to today's title, Walking Man by the great James Taylor. Man being used in a generic sense to encompass all people, of course.

The only thing left to do was dinner. After much discussion, we returned to Osteria de Medici, secured a table, ordered our food and watched the line of people queueing for a table grow. Dinner, a caprese salad, seafood risotto and wild boar ragu pappardelle, was excellent.

As we sat in our room that evening we were entertained by some live jazz music coming from the rooftop of a nearby hotel. Free concert. An excellent way to conclude a very tiring day.

Tomorrow we are in transit to Lucca to meet Matt and his team and the other travellers for our Tuscany food and wine tour. After a good night's sleep of course.

Alla prossima.