S and J's Big Adventure(s): October 2021

Week 8 is another week of living on the hill overlooking Florence.

Sunday, Oct. 17

Walk down to Porta Romana for groceries...

Walking by Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory
(I call it the Galileo Institute)

Villa Capponi
known for it's terraced
gardens and view

We discover Piazza Santo Spirito

A Sunday Mercado...
we buy bread, cookies and empandadas

Then to Carrefour for essentials;
Now, home to finish the blog and do laundry.

Monday, Oct. 18

Laundry at the Laundromat...
We discover Tuscan Taste. A little food/wine store next to the Laundromat. Cooking classes, sauces, wine, artisan beer as well as sandwiches. A lovely way to do your laundry - eat lunch and have great conversation with the owners.

After laundry, groceries...

then we to the park in front of

the Liceo Artistico Statale di Porta Romana e Sesto F.no

to wait for the bus home.

Wednesday, Oct. 20

We go to the train station...again - I got the wrong dates for the return tickets from Venice.

Chiesa Santa Maria Novella is just down the street
(I guess that's why the train station is called Santa Maria Novella?!)

Chiesa Santa Maria Novella

We have been watching lectures by William J. Neidinger on Romanesque Architecture to understand what we are looking at when we look at all these fabulous buildings here in Florence. Santa Maria Novella as well as the Duomo are referenced often.

We then go towards the Duomo
to buy leather gifts for Xmas

On to the Duomo - Santa Maria del Fiore

we show our vacination cards and we go in

We walk toward the River and Ponte Vecchio and stop by the leather shop with Susan where I bought my pink coin purse (my first purchase in Florence.) She shows us leather duffle bags for John and a light weight travel purse for me. We tell her we have to think about it and will be back.

Thursday, Oct. 21

We decide we need to buy John a travel bag and me a travel purse in leather. We catch the 9:55 bus to Porta Romana, have lattés and croissants at Angolo's, then the #11 to Pitti Palace and walk to Susan's store to buy from her.

We are happy
and will travel in
STYLE!

We have to be home before 3, so we can clean up and be able to show the condo to some prospective renters for Silvia.

While waiting for the bus, we meet some neighbors - the 12:25 bus is late/canceled/or something, but a schedule bus will come at 13:15. We get to know the neighbors during the hour delay. So now we "have" neighbors. We see them often, now.

I order from Omero tonight - fried chicken, potatoes and mixed vegetables. 7:30 pick up - 31 Euros

Friday, Oct. 22

Laundry day - sheets...
Start laundry, have lunch at Tuscan Taste
Put sheets in dryer, then take a walk to Santo Spirito

Things you find
on the street corner

Have to see what family
this is...

Then home for leftovers from last night. We ride home with our neighbor-friends.

Saturday, Oct. 23

We take time to have a date (suggested by Anita, our travel agent) at...

The Westin Excelsior Hotel Bar, SE STO.

Westin Excelsior Hotel

The views from the SE STO Rooftop Bar

The Tower of
Chiesa di Salvatore in
Ognissanti

Walking back to Porta Romana

The Arno River Wedge

Chiesa San Frediano

It's supposed to be beautiful inside - it was closed for the day when we passed.

So ends the 8th Week of our European Adventure 2021. We now have about 6 weeks to go.

We now feel like we have a comfortable routine of maintenance and exploration.
We've gotten to know the city pretty well and can find our way around (as long as we are not on an errant bus).
We've met and can chat with some neighbors.
We know how to order take away from Omero and Sefano and Hercules know our favorites on their menu.
We are comfortable with the bus schedule to get around.
We know how to take the train to places we want to go.

After a month and a half, we feel at home in this lovely apartment/condo at Via del Pian de Giullari, 65.

Our first day -
waiting to go in

WEEK 7

...and we're now on the downward slope of our trip.

Sunday, Oct. 10

It's a slow day, it's cold, too.

We've turned up the heat and I work on the blog and my watercolor of Galileo's Gate

The sketch

It's far from finished, but it's coming along

Monday, Oct. 11

Silvia and Giancarlo come to put new shutters on the front windows.

Very nice, indeed.
We are ready for any storm that comes our way.

Silvia gives us some ideas as to where to shop and places to see, so when they leave we walk down the hill in search of Sant' Ambrogio for bread, pasteries and lunch.

We walk down the cobbled streets to town.

Looks like the olives are
almost ready for picking.

We find the market
We get some bread and pasteries...
Schiaciata con L'uva

Schiaciata con L'uva

At the Mercado we get pesto lasagna.

On the way back home, we see if the vendors are at Piazza dei Ciompi

We stop at Piazza Ciompi
-no one there -

Tuesday, Oct. 12

Today's adventure!

We need to reserve our train seats for our Venice Trip.

I'm having trouble with the Eurail App so we need to go to the train station.

Going to the train station entails taking 2 buses from our front door: the #38 to Porta Romana and then a 10 minute ride on the #11 (Salviatino) to the train station.

School has just let out, so when we arrive at the stop, seems like 100 teenagers are ready to go home. The bus arrives and we all jam into the bus like sardines. We stop, the doors open and a few more teenagers sqwish into the bus.

Then as we approach the fork in the street, instead of going to the left, the bus goes straight onto the street in front of the Pitti Palace - The lady standing next to me starts pushing the stop button by the door...nothing, she starts to yelling...the kids are mumbling and start calling on their phones. The bus continues toward the Arno River and turns right onto Via Bardi towards Ponte alle Grazie.

The lady next to me starts yelling to stop, a priest makes his way to the driver and talks to him. The driver is trying to call on the phone and looking at the GPS on his phone. He suddenly stops and everyone smushes into one another and tries not to fall grabbing onto the closest rail to them.

The exit door opens, the lady next to me wiggles her way through the crowd to get off, we need to get off so she can get off, we then try to squeeze back in - the doors have trouble closing.

We continue by going over the Arno River at least 3 bridges away from the bridge we are supposed to be crossing. We should be going toward the train station, but the driver is yelling at his phone and trying to look at his GPS while jerkily turning left and right on the narrow streets of the old city.

The kids are calling people on their phones with worried looks on their faces. We finally stop at a bus stop that says #11 on it. Almost everyone gets off - it's way on the other side of town from the train station.

We decide to go to the end of the line and see what happens. We see a lot of the city that we probably would never get to.

When we get to the last stop, the bus driver asks one of the passengers that gets on how far she's going and then has her sit next to him to guide him. At one point we stop in the middle of a street and he backs up about 3 blocks to the 5 way intersection where he was supposed to turn. In order to go in the right direction, he has to go the wrong way on the street, so there is a car jam at the 5 way stop.

After that fiasco, we seem to be heading in the right direction towards the train station. We relax a little.

After an hour or so of getting on this bus for a 10 minute ride, we make it to the train station - safely!

The business at the train station seems effortless compared to our bus ride - we are happy to get our paper tickets and seats for Venice!!!

The thin blue line is roughly the
route taken to Salviatino

Here the thin blue line shows the route
back to the train station and then to Porta Romana.

We end up having a drink at Bar de Angolo before getting the #38b bus home.

What a nice place that Bar is.

Wednesday, Oct. 13

Today we thought we'd go to Fort Belvedere to see what's there.

We have walked by many times but have never stopped to see it.

We walk by
Chiesa Parrocchiale di San Leonardo

Fort Belvedere
My phone says it opens at 4
It is 3 now...we wait

We walk around the perimeter.

We wait some more
under the Crest of Medici

It's 4:15 and no sign of any opening -

Somebody walks by and says

"It's closed because of Covdi."

We walk home
My joints ache because of these streets!

I love these old rock walls

It looks like preparations for olive picking

These olives look good and ready

We know we are almost home now...

Pian de Giullari
Alley of the Joker

It's Zoom time with the Ancient Mariners.

We all make it this time.

2 hours of catching up, it's been over a month

and many have been on trips to share.

Paula, Susie, Mary Sue
Candy, Jan, Melinda
Christine

Thursday, Oct. 14

We thought we might go to Boboli Garden, but decide to stay at home and catch up. Not sure what we have to catch up on, but there seems to be plenty of occupy us. Computer time, reading, napping and other taxing things. I decide to order dinner from Omero for tonight...

Grilled Pigeon, fried vegetables -
Zucchini flowers, zucchini and eggplant spears.
Marinated artichokes, mushrooms and almond stuffed olives