Florence

From Cinque Terre, E and I parted ways with S: he went to his conference in Barga, and E and I took a train to Florence. We arrived on a Sunday afternoon (6/15), checked into our Wimdu flat, and went straight to the Uffizi, where we met up with our friend L from back home. I didn't take my camera, because I had read photos weren't allowed, although that didn't seem to prevent anyone else from snapping shots of the abundant Botticellis, Michaelangelos, and Titians.

The Uffizi is huge and a little overwhelming--the kind of museum that's best spread out over multiple visits, to comfortably view a small portion at a time. For me, the highlight was the ornately painted ceiling throughout the top floor; had the galleries been empty, the ceiling alone would have made the visit worthwhile. As for the rest of the art, like the Mona Lisa in the Louvre, it looks better in photos than from behind the heads of a gazillion other tourists.

We left the Uffizi after 2.5 hours--earlier than we'd planned--to chase a costumed parade that we had seen through a window: folks dressed in Renaissance garb, playing drums and horns, making their way to a re-creation of a Renaissance football game. We never quite managed to navigate around other tourists to catch up with the parade, but the effort got us wandering into the piss-scented garbage-dumpster-filled back streets of east central Florence, where eventually, to our delight, we emerged into a small plaza a block away from a small open supermarket (on a Sunday afternoon! Clearly, Italy isn't Germany). We bought food for dinner, made a brief detour to gawk at the exterior of the synagogue, then walked all the way back to our flat on the west side of central Florence to make dinner with L.

Florence Day 2 was a Monday, when many museums are closed. That didn't keep us from occupying ourselves in art and architecture. In a nutshell: rain and clouds, Campanile (416 steps up and down), Da Vinci Machines Museum, vegetarian tourist lunch (pasta), bright sunshine, Baptistery, Arno stroll, dingy public restroom experience (a pricey Euro, but for that one gets a slip of paper with a customer number, plus they had both soap and toilet seats), spiritually cleansing gelato (me: maracuja and chocolate; E: black cherry and hardcore caffe), Forte di Belvedere (we weren't planning to go, but we spontaneously followed a sign), Boboli Gardens (likewise), nut and candied fruit torrone (marshmallow of the gods), Duomo, Brunelleschi's dome (463 steps up and down, with a gallery walk that awakened my inner acrophobe), then back to our Wimdu flat (TV! Internet!) for a few hours of World Cup soccer. We had a little neighborhood excitement in the evening: a water main broke, so no one on the block had running water. A helpful bartender in the corner pub sold us some Acqua Naturale cheap so we could brush our teeth.

Campanile. We started our second day here because, amazingly, there were no lines.

Going up

A small fraction of the Duomo exterior. The lavish pink, green, and white marble is, um, intense.

Red rooftops

More red rooftops

Rain over red rooftops

Synagogue

Somehow, looking at all those red rooftops, E managed to spy a cat.

Baptistery ceiling. Satan is chowing down on sinners in the panel to the right of Jesus's feet.

Shiny

Baptistery floor

Ponte Vecchio. The tree floating on the Arno had a mannequin in it and was part of an art installation.

Uffizi

Pool of lime Jell-o in Boboli Gardens

Modern art says "antiquity" in Boboli Gardens

Duomo entrance. Note the lute-playing angels below the clock and to the right

Looking up at Brunelleschi's dome

Duomo detail

We waited in line for almost an hour to climb the dome

It was very windy at the top. The railings were low enough to make me cling to the walls.

A copy of David in front of the Palazzo Vecchio

Ceilings in the Pallazzo Vecchio courtyard

Freiburg side trip and clouds over southern Germany

I made a quick solo 2-night side trip to Freiburg early this week to attend to important business (namely, to present a writing workshop and to stock up on Gelatine-frei gummi bears). I took a Deutsche Bahn double-decker bus, which on Sunday gave me impressive views of the ever-changing weather. This afternoon, I head back to Steinebach; for better or worse, the weather is beautifully sunny.

Cinque Terre

After Lake Orta, we spent three nights in a small Wimdu flat in the "new town" section of Monterosso, the northernmost town of the Cinque Terre. The other four towns, heading south, are Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore.

Cinque Terre is the land of humongous lemons. There were lemon trees in yards all over Monterosso, and giant lemons for sale in many stores. E and I shared the world's best lemon granita from a shop near the church in the old town (secret ingredient: copious amounts of lemon zest).

A private beach in Monterosso's Old Town

Phone cables hanging outside our apartment

On our first full day, we arose early and hiked from Monterosso to Vernazza and Corniglia along the Cinque Terre National Park lower coastal trail. We started too early to purchase a trail pass, but when we emerged in Vernazza after the first leg, the trail monitor told us to forget about it, since we wouldn't be using that part of the trail anymore. The second leg, between Vernazza and Corniglia, wasn't officially open yet, so we didn't need a pass for that either.

The amazingly clear Mediterranean 

Lizard

Prickly pear

Looking back at Monterosso

Poppies

Europe grows big snails

On the rugged trail between Monterosso and Vernazza, we encountered some homeless and clearly unloved cats.

"Please, use the food inside this container to feed these homeless and unloved cats. Thanks!"

A homeless, clearly unloved cat on the trail

Another homeless, clearly unloved cat

Coming into Vernazza

There were homeless, clearly unloved cats in Vernazza too

Vernazza pigeons

Coming into Corniglia

A street in Corniglia

Steps from Corniglia down to the train station. It's a long way down. 

Sweaty menfolk

Floods and rock slides made Manarola inaccessible by the lower trail, so we viewed it from afar from the Corniglia train station and headed back to Monterosso.

Manrola, from the Corniglia train station

Back in Monterosso, we took a midday break; then S and E went to the beach.

This public beach in Monterosso had mostly cleared out by late afternoon. E is building a sandcastle.

The second day, we took a ferry from Monterosso to Manarola, then hiked an upper trail back to Corniglia. We got a late start, so it was a mighty hot hike, but the views were spectacular.

Corniglia, from the ferry

Manarola

Heading up and out of Manarola

Vineyards helped protect Manarola from the floods that devastated Vernazza and Monterosso in 2011

Looking toward Corniglia

Water awaited us in Volastra

Mid-trail, looking down

Mid-trail, looking up

Up and up and up

The trails skirted the edges of vineyards

Shady woods were welcome

Heading down into Corniglia

We met lots of people on the trails. We were shy about talking at first, since we speak only minimal Italian, but it quickly became clear that pretty much everyone on the trail was a tourist, and 80% of them were English- or German-speaking. The three northernmost towns seemed mostly occupied by Americans, British, Australians, New Zealanders, and Germans, while Manarola was preferred by the French. We never made it to Riomaggiore, since the lower coastal trail (Via dell'Amore) was closed, and we couldn't easily hike there. Maybe that's where the Italian tourists go.