On this particular trip we were visiting Firenze as a staging place for our anniversary trip to Tuscany. We arrived from Rome on a TrenItalia express train from Rome Centrale which took about an hour and thirty minutes. We spent two nights at Hotel Paris, Via dei Banchi 2 Tel +39-055280281 www.parishotel.it, email: Info@parishotel.it.
We like Hotel Paris because on an earlier trip we arrived late and the only room available was the Presidential room, which is oversized, with a fresco ceiling, tall medieval fireplace and even a non-working fountain in the room. Everything makes it a very comfortable stay. Located only two blocks from the train station, it is convenient as a staging ground, either to visit Firenze, the Uffizi museum, the Duomo, the Piti Palace and Ponte Vecchio, or to travel to nearby cities.
On this trip we did both. We visited the Duomo although we were unable to enter the building as it was closed at the particular time we arrived. But we went to a café directly across the street and had a light lunch. The interesting part of this was watching the waiters discussing a guest who stopped by just for a beverage. She had a very large chest, which caused her to walk with care. The waiters were still talking about her when we paid the bill. We went on to the Ponte Vecchio, took pictures from the bridge and those of us who were exploring the shops along it. We discussed the walkway over the shops the Medicis built to allow them to walk from the Piti Palace to the Uffizi, when it was their main governmental offices. We had read about that walkway being opened to the public for the first time. The articles about it had said part of the Medici collections that had not been available for public showing had been placed along that walkway and we all agreed we would have liked to see it, but did not have time on this trip. Something to save for a future visit. Since we were going to Bologna for dinner at Franco Rossi Ristorante that evening, the subject of a separate blog, we walked the shop filled streets back to the hotel.
The next day we took the train again, this time to Venice, which is the subject of a separate blog as well.
On our last day in Firenze we visited the leather market and the huge Mercato Centrale Firenze food market outside of which the leather booths are set up on Via Dell ‘Ariento and some of the side streets. The leather market is next to the Basilica di San Lorenzo. We wandered through the Mercato Centrale and recognized it as very similar to the Eataly stores we had visited in New York and Boston. Large markets of Italian food, cheeses, meats, pastas, sauces spices and wines. Going outside to the leather market, we looked for a variety of leather apparel, but ended up purchasing only a leather computer bag, which was listed for 299 euros on the tag. When we had satisfied ourselves that the bag would work for Karen, we handed it back and started to walk away. The merchant asked why and we responded that it was ‘e troppo caro’, loosely, ‘too expensive’. He responded by asking what we would pay. Karen responded not more than 50 euros. He instantly countered with ‘you can have it for 80.’ We walked away with a leather computer bag for less than 25% of the asking price.
After the leather market we returned to Hotel Paris and packed for our short ride to Villa Collalto where our anniversary party would start that evening.
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