Finally, Firenze!

 

I arrived in Florence on Wednesday after another few hours of incident-free bus/train travel. My apartment for the month is as advertised – lovely and modernized inside an old Palazzo and highly functional.   

It’s in the Oltrarno, Santo Spirito neighborhood, on a quiet-ish street, steps away from a grocery store and close to plenty of shops and restaurants.  I got unpacked, bought a few groceries, and did all my laundry using the basement machines available to all. As I knew, my apartment has no view.  My windows look into the windows of residences across the street, and I’m already becoming familiar with the coming-and-going habits of my neighbors.

On Thursday and Friday, our trip coordinators got us oriented with an introductory session, some walking tours, a group dinner one night, and a happy hour the next. Now we’re on our own until next week when the next round of lunch/activity/happy hour occurs, but we travelers got acquainted enough to make plans with one another. 

To be in Florence is to be overwhelmed, not only because of the amazing art and architecture at every turn, but because there are so many people. Supposedly, the tourist population has dropped off a bit as we enter October, but it’s hard to fathom. It’s hard to picture there being even more people here in recent months.

On Friday, I decided to start the day away from the mayhem, so took a walk uphill to the Bellosquardo neighborhood which is the location of the hillside villa depicted in the painting shown on my Aug. 6 blog post. I could not see the villa itself (google says it is now a closed estate), but I found the gate that leads to it.  Here is the stunning view from there:

 

After that, I walked through beautiful streets and terrain featuring lots of greenery and large homes which are out of Firenze’s main fray.   

 

I ended up at San Miniato al Monte where I walked through the extensive cemetery and observed the ‘delivery’ of a new cemetery occupant.  Back in the flatlands, I detoured through the Santa Croce area on the way back ‘home’ where I rested up before our group happy hour.

Today, I dove into cultural Firenze with visits to two once-in-a-lifetime exhibits, but I’ll save those details for my next post. Be sure to check back!

Friday's walk: