Travel from Cinque Terra to Florence was very straightforward. Take the commuter train to La Spezia and then hop the next available to Florence. You can schedule yourself to catch either the regional trains which stop at every station, the intercity trains or the Euro-express. Since we are not on a timetable, we just take the next available. Leaving at 9:30 we arrived in Florence around 1:30. From the train station it was a 15 minute walk to find the hotel.

After checking in to the hotel, we head to the Galleria dell’ Accademia where Michelangelo’s David is housed. It was a good way to start the museum tours. Seeing all the sculptures together helped us appreciate and understand the significance of Michelangelo’s work.

After viewing the sculptures, we headed to the Piazza del Duomo cathedral. Construction was started in 1296 and took close to 150 years to complete. The cathedral was closed, so we opted to go through the museum, which captured much of the history of construction of this dome. Probably its most significant contribution was it was the first dome of this size built since Roman time and all the techniques for this scale of dome had to be redeveloped. Aside from that, it is was a bit boring.

After being so cultured, we treated ourselves to a nice restaurant. Criss had a fillet and Carol had swordfish. The first dinners like this in a year. As best we can tell from the butcher shops, Albanian cows do not have fillets, at least we have not seen them yet, but after such a treat, we will renew our search once we return.

The next day was the required visit to the Uffizi Gallery. This gallery receives 1.5 million visitors a year and the line to buy the ticket is about a 2-hour wait. Our hotel had offered to book a reservation for us and we are glad we did that, as we got in with-in 30 minutes. Seeing this gallery is an all-day affair and there is no way we can describe it well here. The sculptures were phenomenal and the painting just as captivating. Seeing the transition from the pre-Renaissance flat, one-dimensional style to pictures with depth was very impressive. We also got to learn a lot about the martyrs, saints and torture. And by the end of the day, our feet were experiencing a bit of torture themselves.

We returned to the hotel about 6:30 and we were tired. In fact, we opted just to eat some snack food in the room instead of going out for dinner. It was just too much effort to put our feet back in our shoes. Our dinner consisted of California wine, tortilla chips (not available in Albania), fruit, cheese and egg rolls (not available in Durres) from the Chinese takeout down the street.

The following day was a day trip to Fiesole to see the archeological museum and find the Indian food restaurant everyone (that would be 2 out of 2 people asked) recommended when we asked about Indian food. We hit the Roman theatre and toured the Etruscan (pre-Roman) site, then spent several hours in the museum. For lunch we grabbed a sandwich and walked up to the park overlooking Florence. Then back to Florence, as the restaurant is only open in the evening. We returned later that evening and had a wonderful Indian meal.

Returning to Florence, Criss was searching for a field guide for the Mediterranean area. So we walked to several addresses he had for international bookstores, only to find they were closed as the building they were in was being for remodeled. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped in the Santa Marie Cathedral where Michelangelo apprenticed. Carol was reading a book, “The Agony and the Ecstasy” about Michelangelo and she wanted to see the setting. Very neat! Back at the hotel for a short rest and out to dinner. We were glad the restaurant was far enough away that you had to take a bus.