Day 12 - Out and About

Ever have one of those days that starts off one way and ends completely differently than you expected?

Guessing you know where this is going...

One of the nice things about living in a place you don't know, being unemployed and really having no honest responsibility yet is living. Period. Just living. Queue random Saturday...

I woke up this morning with no idea of how I was going to spend my day. So, like most days here, I sat down at my desk, turned on my laptop and started to tear away yesterday's page from my Italy daily calendar. Today's picture for Jan. 8 was intriguing with a caption simply stating, "Street corner fountain, Florence."

Hmmm... I have no plans for today. I really have yet to walk out of the door and take an honest to goodness stroll around this city alone. So, I looked at Jan. 8 and said, "Today, I find 'Street corner fountain Florence.'"

My research began in the usual fashion, I googled 'Street corner fountain, Florence' over and over to determine where said fountain was located. Luckily, after about 20 minutes, I learned more about 'Street corner fountain, Florence' than I ever could have really wanted. Turns out, it's a rather famous picture, and a rather famous fountain. So, you would think it would be easy to find right? After another 15 minutes of research, I determined the location of the fountain, between two crossroads on the other side of the River Arno. Once I had established the location, I discovered that I had really done very little exploring of the other side of the river and thought I mind as well make a day out of it.

After a shower and some breakfast, I gathered my things and left my building. By this time, I am familiar enough with the layout of the city to really only need a map if I need to get someplace by taking the appropriate roads to meet a certain time frame. But that was not today. And, off I hiked.

It was a beautiful day, upper 50s and partly cloudy. I reached my destination and looked around for a good 5 minutes only to find that 'Street corner fountain, Florence' was not there. Instead, in it's place was another fountain I was familiar with as I had seen it through my research. Well... Dead end here...

However, just a brief walk down the road and I was at a "must see" landmark from one of my travel books. The Piazza de' Pitti. This particular location was the home of the Medici Family. So before I continue, I will again mention that the Medici Family, during their time, were one of the most powerful influences in all of Europe. They had money, they had power and they had status. So, calling where they lived a "house" was really an understatement. I'll let the pictures below explain.

When you purchase a ticket to go into the Medici Home/Museum/Garden, you have two options. You can walk around the gardens and travel into a few rooms of the house (which I chose that day) or you can take tour through the house to see other historic museums. This is also the location of the Museum of Modern Art. The map below shows the house and the surrounding gardens. If I had to estimate, I'd say the garden area I walked around was probably about 30 acres of hills (which is A LOT in Florence). And when I say hills, I mean HILLS.

Map of the Palazzo Pitti and Giardino di Boboli. The 'palace' is at the bottom left in red and the rest of the map shows the accompanying gardens. For reference, I have taken three pictures of just the palace, below. I could not fit the palace into one or even two shots. So, if this is the size of the palace, you can imagine how HUGE the garden area is.

Left side of Palazzo Pitti 

Middle of Palazzo Pitti 

Right side of Palazzo Pitti 

After walking through the entrance in the middle portion of the palace, you find the large courtyard with quite an impressive fountain.  (Far dark area)

Closer

Really Close

This is the back side of the palace. Of course, yet another large fountain. 

Next are some pictures of the garden area, Giordino de Boboli. This is the large green area on the map that makes the oval shape. I walked through most of the area, trying to see as much as I could before sun down. The following pictures are taken all over the gardens. 

Amphitheater, the back of the palace is to my back

Had to prop my camera in a tree for this shot. The self timer worked pretty good.

Cypress Lane - this section of the garden stretches down the middle. Depending on which end you are standing, it's a very long way down, or a VERY long way up.

Nearing the Island Fountain

The Island Fountain

Along the outer path of the garden, streams this fountain. It's close to 25 gargoyles long and single stream of water runs from the top, through each gargoyles mouth, before it reaches the bottom. 

Each gargoyle's head it different from the one above it and below.

Buddies

These stairs lead up to a smaller garden, the Porcelain Museum and some spectacular views of Florence.

Castle behind my left shoulder

The backside of the Palazzo Pitti, complete with large pond area with statue in the middle.

This is the entrance to Belevidere Fortress. I haven't gathered enough knowledge about this yet to try and explain it, so in the meantime just check it.

Cat hangin' out next to the entrance to the fortress. There are cats all over the town and they make homes in holes in buildings and through stone sewer tunnels.

Florence

Grotto

Inside of Grotto (right)

Inside of Grotto (left)

Top of Grotto - Unfortunately, these pictures do not do justice to the intricate art work all around the inside of the Grotto. It's really amazing.

(I have a handful of more pictures from this beautiful day so stay tuned for more views.)

So perhaps I never found the 'Street corner fountain, Florence.' I suppose it will have to wait for another day. However, I'd have to say that I had a pretty successful day as is. AND it's not over yet.

I returned home, tired from walking around all day. While talking through my computer, a new girl who moved in, Alexis, popped into my room and asked if I'd like to grab a glass of wine with her tonight. "It's Saturday night," she said. "Let's go out." And go out, we did!

We started with a walk down the street looking for a place to grab a bite to eat. We stumbled across multiple pizzerias until we decided on one. However, I should mention that it was a half hour wait for a table to two at 9:30 p.m. These people eat dinner late. By the time we got a table it was 10 and to keep things simple I ordered a pizza with the name Wurstel. The description said it included tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella and German sausage. I thought, "Can't go wrong with that, right?!" So, we sat and talked 'personal history' while we waited for dinner to arrive.

After we had garnered a decent amount of knowledge about each other, order up! My pizza looked appetizing enough, but something was a little off. The German sausage didn't quite look like German sausage to me. After sampling the "German sausage" I realized why it didn't look like German sausage. Because it wasn't German sausage. It was none other than a classic American hot dog. Yes folks, there was a hot dog, sliced up on my pizza. I looked at Alexis and said, "This, this is not a German sausage. In fact, this isn't sausage at all! It's a hot dog..." After she sampled, her response was, "Yep, that's a Ballpark. Tastes exactly like a Ballpark." We had a good laugh over this for a couple minutes and I continued to eat my hot dog pizza. It made me feel like a real American. Sigh...

So, by the time we left the restaurant it was just after 11 and we decided to check out the bar scene. A local pub establishment called the Lion's Fountain was close and we gave it a shot. In both surprise and expectation, the bartenders all spoke English. In fact just about everyone in the bar spoke English because it was an American bar. Alexis and I bellied up and met the bartender. And after we had been sitting and chatting for a bit, the 'classy' drunk American girls showed up. "I'm like, three sheets to the wind!!!" one said. "I can't drink anymore, anymore!!!! Hey Carl (Swedish bartender), I'm not drinking!!! I'm not drinking!!! Oh, I'll have a vodka tonic...." Typical. Reminded me of college. And that's basically where we found ourselves, a typical American college bar. We concluded our night at the Lion's Fountain and both agreed that we enjoyed the experience, but would not be going back anytime soon.

It ended up being one of those unpredictable days where each time I thought I knew what I was getting into, I was pretty much, well, wrong. It was, however, full of fun and excitement.

Good day.