Navigating Florence, Italy

The first train out of Montreux was easy and uneventful yesterday, we got on the right coach and right train. When we arrived in Milan to transfer to a train to Florence, we hit a slight bump in the travels. NOWHERE on our ticket did it tell us what coach we needed to get on to find our seats 13A and 14A. We saw on the side of first coach, 10-18 so we thought, great that is where our seats are. WELL, we had gotten first class seats due to all of our luggage because the cost was not that much more, unbeknownst to us our coach was clear at the other end of the train. Rebecca has a suitcase like Polly's Thor, I had my two smaller but heavy bags, plus my computer bag. Just as bad as hers but distributed amongst three, where she had her Thor and a smaller bag. It was an adventure getting to the other end of the train, precisely what we were trying to avoid in the first place. We did make it and all was good. We found the taxi station with no hassle and found our way to La Scaletta. I love this hotel. It is authentic and right in the heart of Florence. I just found out "scaletta" means ladder or stairs! There are lots of stairs, LOL, and a rickety old lift that looks like it should be in a warehouse. That said, it is all beautiful! We walk up three flights of broad, grand stairs to get to our hallway. The building is 600 years old! Everyone is really nice here and everyone/everywhere seems to speak English; which is good but also kind of sad as there seems to be Americans everywhere. Americans are definitely catered to here. At first I thought it was going to be really easy to get lost here but there are clear landmarks and we are close to everything. Old Bridge is beautiful and historic, it is also a great gathering point that leads to the Plaza del Vecchio, and Old Bridge

Plaza Del Vecchio



The Uffizi Gallery on the other side of the Arno River.

So, today we did go to the Uffizi Gallery. We spent most of the day in the Uffizi Gallery. We paid for a guided tour and I am so very glad we did. For one, there was a line that would have taken us a couple of hours to get into the Gallery, but more importantly our guide, was very knowledgeable and passionate about the history of the Medicis, the Uffizi Gallery itself and the art houses there. He took us to the highlighted pieces. We say Michelangelo, Leonardo De Vinci, Botticelli, Raphael, and several others. Our guide shared the whole history of the Medici Family coming to power, their long reign, the influence of Florenzo de Medici on the arts, artists and philosophy. Very interesting. This area is just too beautiful for me to do justice from my pictures for sure; that is why I resorted to Google Images. Here, though are some pictures from the Gallery: 

Botticelli

Michelangelo

I'll post others separately but my phone is acting up and I haven't been able to transfer all the pictures to Google plus yet because of poor internet. We had dinner on the Arno river; all the restaurants in Florence are pretty reasonably prices and the wine spectacular. We ate at a restaurant by the river that was lovely. We had artichoke tortellini:) then walked back to our hotel. 

I am happy to report that I know my way around this neighborhood pretty well. There are good landmarks. I went to an actual supermarket tonight to buy grocery items for our breakfasts. It was fun shopping in a local market. I bought some croissants, fruit and local cheeses/meats, milk and water. 

Tomorrow we head to Cinque Terre!