Today we woke up early to get ready for our tour. Here is the view from our window looking out over the Duomo and buildings in Florence, so beautiful.
We got ready fast and went down to eat breakfast before we met our tour guide. Here is Todd deciding on what he wants...
Hmmm...maybe something over here also...
Each breakfast has been delicious, and my favorite things have been the yummy pastries they serve. Europe does pastries right.
We took a taxi across the river and met our tour guide, Chiara, at the Boboli gardens entrance. Todd is a big fan of Dan Brown books, and so we found a tour here in Florence that kinda follows the last Dan Brown book, Inferno.
The start of our tour, the beautiful Boboli gardens.
We met Chiara our guide, and she was so great! She spoke english super well, was very friendly and really easy to talk to and ask questions to. She really was knowledgeable about the area and the whole tour was so fascinating!
She explained to us that the Boboli gardens used to be the private gardens of the Medici family, Cosimo and Elenora. Cosimo was the ruler of Tuscany and lived in the Palazzo Vecchio, but when he married Elenora, she wanted a bigger palace and didn't want to have to live in the middle of all the common people. So she bought the Palazzo Pitti, across the river and decked. it. out. Involved in this decking out was expansion of the gardens behind it, which are now these beautiful Boboli gardens.
A beautiful pond with a fountain and potted citrus trees all around.
The gardens have these hidden walkways formed by the trees making archs. We walked under several as Chiara told us the history of the gardens, the palace and the Medici family.
Here is the Palazzo Pitti...
From the top of the hill in the gardens you can see this beautiful view of Florence.
Ahhhh, Tuscany you are so beautiful!
All the flowers were in bloom, and the roses were so gorgeous and smelled so fragrant!
Looking down at the palace and the grounds...
There were statues everywhere, but this statue is of Cosimo and Eleonora's son's wife. She was Austrian and never felt loved or at home in Florence. Her crazy husband had a mistress his whole life and she died giving birth to her eighth child after having fallen down the stairs. Crazy, fascinating, stories!
Fountain in the gardens...
Another obelisk and a giant bathtub that was thought to be a bath from one of the Roman baths in Rome.
Part of the gardens is this outdoor theater...
To the right is this view from Florence from the palace, you can see the Duomo and the tower of Palazzo Vecchio.
One of the coolest parts of the tour was when we saw this grotto built for Francesco, Cosimo's son, the one who was married to Joanna. I guess he was a different kind of guy, never really wanted to be Duke, and was interested in the elements, apothecary, and art. He commissioned a guy to make him a grotto in the gardens and he made him this...
It's kinda like a cave with carvings and statues and murals on the walls...
In the middle is a water feature that hardly gets turned on anymore.
It was really interesting to see all the shells and mud that was used to create the inside.
Totally something that others usually don't see when coming to Florence and I really loved it.
This is a fat little person that Cosimo kept around as his sort of buddy/jester. He was lucky enough to get his own statue in the gardens. Yep, he is naked.
Part of the back of the palace.
And here is the front of the Palazzo Pitti.
One of the most fascinating things that we learned about was the Vasari Corridor. The Medici family had it built from the Palazzo Pitti to the Uffizi so Cosimo wouldn't have to travel in the streets to go from his home to where he ruled the city. It is literally a covered walkway that goes over the river on the Ponte Vecchio, through buildings and a church, all the way to the Uffizi. It was so cool to see, I had never noticed it before and it was something really fun that we learned!
There it is, those square windows are a part of it.
Over the archway...
Built around the outside of the building, now with circular windows. The circular windows were built on purpose to help the noise from the street channel in better to the Vasari Corridor. Cosimo would hide out up there and listen to the gossip from the servants down below who were at market. He could find out plots against him this way.
And over the Ponte Vecchio.
Standing on the Ponte Vecchio, you can see it turning right with the square windows.
Here we are crossed over the Ponte Vecchio looking up at the Vasari Corridor over head.
That little piece in between the two buildings is the last part, into the Uffizi. Very cool stuff.
Statue of Medusa, made out of Bronze. This statue was commissioned by Cosimo to kinda compete with the David. He set it here in the Piazza della Signoria as kind of a warning of his power. Nice one Cosimo.
And here is Cosimo himself, now a statue in front of Palazzo Vecchio. It was so interesting to learn about him and the Medici family during our tour.
This is the assumed residence of Dante.
This was the tower that was close to Dante's house. During that time the higher the tower, the more wealthy and powerful the family was, and each family had it's own tower.
A picture of Dante in the stone of the piazza by his home...
Here is a bust of Dante, I guess he had a big nose. Yikes! Looks like beak!
This guy was acting like Dante and doing a little show. Chiara said he is here almost every day.
Next we went to the church where Dante went to church and where he fell in love at first sight with his muse, Beatrice. It is a sweet story, but he only saw her a few times and she and he married other people. She was still always his muse.
Here is the tomb of Beatrice and it is a Italian tradition to write love notes to her, and by doing this you are helped in your love life and with your love issues.
The basket full of love notes.
We then headed over to the Duomo and learned all about the Cupula, which is the biggest and widest in Europe. It was a project to finish this Duomo, and took several years.
We went to the baptistry that is right by the Duomo and admired the doors.
Inside the baptistry, lots of mosaics and gold, just like St. Marks. They are similar because Venetians were hired to do the work on this baptistry since it was so special to the people.
We finished our tour at the baptistry and said good-bye to our tour guide Chiara.
By this time it was around 1:00pm and we were hungry and tired. Before we went to get some lunch we went over to look inside the Duomo.
Since we got tickets to go inside the baptistry, included on those tickets is the fare to climb to the top of the Duomo, into the cupula. Todd really wanted to do it. I was hesitant, but agreed and thought how bad could it be?
Well it was crazy. 417 steps to the top, and I thought I was going to die. Not joking. Half of the time you are walking up the smallest, steepest staircase you have ever seen along with other sweaty tourists. But when we got to the top, the view was incredible.
Top of the Duomo Selfie!
"I think I see my Dad."
Watching Todd do this was freaking me out. I am not super good with heights.
We climbed back down all 417 steps. We were tired and shaky when we got down and we hurried and found a place where we could eat some lunch. Chiara had given us a recommendation so we found the place she told us about and had a great lunch. I had risotto and it was great, and Todd had pasta. Yum.
After lunch we got some gelato and went back over to the Palazzo Vecchio to meet up with another tour, this time of the Palazzo and all the hidden passage ways in inside. It was a very cool tour, but when the tour guide who could barely speak English told us that we would have to be climbing a lot of steps, I almost decked Todd! We were so tired our legs felt like jello and we looked and felt ridiculous as we struggled to climb those stairs! It was so funny.
We couldn't take any pictures inside the tour, but it was super cool to see the secret rooms and passageways that Cosimo and Francesco Medici built into the Palazzo Vecchio.
Outside the Palazzo Vecchio, going into our tour...
hello naked David.
After our tour was over we headed home to change clothes and rest a bit, and then headed back out to do a little shopping and have dinner. We ate in the Piazza della Signoria again because we loved it so much from last night.
We talked all through dinner about how much we have loved every second of our trip away together to Italy. It has truly been magical and wonderful. I know I miss my boys something fierce, but I am so grateful to have been able to get away with just Todd for this last week. It has been a trip of a lifetime. We both promised that we will do trips together more often and not let 7 years go by without getting away alone again.
On our way back to the hotel I snapped one last pic of Cosimo against the backdrop of the Palazzo Vecchio. I really loved learning about the history of this city today. It was a great day!
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