Easter in Florence

Ben got his Easter present one day early, on Saturday morning.  No baskets over here.

 

 We spent Easter weekend in Florence.  We left about noon on Saturday, driving, and got there at about 3:30.  The road was all highway, but the last hour of it was really curvy, with several tunnels and bridges and lots of pretty scenery.  We first checked into the hotel.  It was a really nice hotel, with a cute little garden in back that our room overlooked.  Our room was large by European standards.  We fit the pack-n-play no problem. 

Then we set off for the sight-seeing.  We had a 5-10 minute walk to get to the historic area, but it was along the river, with beautiful buildings going up the banks, and mountains in the distance.

Saturday afternoon and evening we walked by the Duomo (Cathedral) and went in the Duomo Museum, which housed the paintings and sculptures that used to be in the Duomo.  They were removed at some point because it was decided that they “took away from” the church itself. 

We walked around more of the historical center and admired the architecture of the buildings (renaissance and gothic).  Many of the buildings, art, and sculptures were from the 15^th century.

Florence is said to have the best gelato in Italy.  Honestly, I think it's all good!
 


Michelangelo’s David.

We had a wonderful traditional Tuscan dinner, pasta, sausage, and veal.  On the way back to the hotel, we walked across the old bridge, Ponte Vecchio.

Sunday, we went to the Duomo first thing to see the parade and the Explosion of the Cart, Scoppio del Carro.  The cart was pulled by four white oxen.  They were bigger than Clydesdales.

When we got into place in front of the Duomo at about 10, we were about 15 people back, and could see bits and pieces.  The parade consisted of several people in costume, drums, bugles, and flag twirling.  Finally the cart pulled in.  Then it started raining, but we waited.  We had umbrellas, so we didn’t get too wet.  At a few minutes to 11, it stopped raining.  The dove shot out of the Duomo at 11 and started the fireworks.  They lasted about 20 minutes.  Promptly when it was over, it started raining again.  Ben was a champ, with the rain and the fireworks. 

After the fireworks, we went into the Duomo for Easter Mass.

It was still raining, and hard to walk around with the stroller and stay dry, so we had a long lunch.  By then it stopped raining, so we walked around some more.

Ben's Easter outfit.

We met Matt and Kristen and his parents and brother for dinner.  We had a wonderful 4 course meal of meats and cheese, four kinds of pastas, 8 pounds of steak, and dessert.

Monday, we went up to the roof of our hotel.

We had a couple of things we wanted to do, but we started with the Galileo Science Museum.  This museum was fascinating, and we really enjoyed it.  We stayed there all morning and early afternoon and didn’t have time to do anything else before we needed to leave.  We will have to go back someday to see what we missed.

Me with Galileo.  Tim and Ben with the amazingly accurate constellation map and globe from the 16th century.