FLORENCE

It may sound weird considering Florence is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, but I felt miserable when I got here. Mentally, I had wanted peace and quiet and I had naively hoped that the time between Christmas and New Year would be a quiet time to travel. But I found out this is typically when a lot of Italians travel, and the streets were as busy as the ones in Venice with queues everywhere. Even the panini shops. I know I am just as much a tourist as anyone else, and I don’t expect places to be empty, but I don’t do well in crowds, and I felt very overwhelmed.

At first I thought I tried to get an early flight back. When this failed, plan B was to hide in my hotel for a few days. Luckily, the hotel staff’s insistence that they clean the room, forced me outside. I had pre-booked a day ‘behind the scenes’ of the Duomo so I decided to go and at least start this tour, thinking I could always drop off if it all got too much. Imagine my delight to find I was the only one who showed up. It was just me and my lovely Italian guide.

The morning was spent in workshops looking at the mosaic restoration workshop, followed by a tour of the Baptistry and a good look at the mosaicked domed ceiling. We then went to the cathedral workshop, home of Opera del Duomo (OPA), where the master craftsmen restore and repair artefacts from the cathedral. Ordinarily the workmen would be here, but today it was empty and my guide let me wander around taking photos of the wonderful tools, some of them very old. There were mutterings about Michelangelo sculpting ‘David’ here but this felt like a bit of tourist bait which I didn’t need. I was already interested in the workshop, and the work of OPA whose initials are everywhere.

After lunch we went into the Duomo itself. My guide was able to take me behind the roped-off areas to get better views of the paintings, stained glass, the unusual clock and the marble floors. We went down into the crypt to see the remains of the older cathedral, Santa Reparata. And finally up into the dome itself. On the way we walked around the outer roof terraces and I found myself alone (my guide was afraid of heights) directly above the piazza, right by the rose window on the façade. I couldn’t quite believe that I had been allowed to go there.

We made our way up Brunelleschi’s dome, getting close-up views of Vasari’s fresco, up ladders and narrow passages and onto the gallery where we had stunning views of the city as the sun was setting. I was so glad I had made the effort to do this tour.

Reassured by the success of this day out, the next day I went off to explore the Uffizi. It was early but already the queue was all the way down to the river.  I had pre-booked a ticket that gave me entrance as soon as it opened so it was hugely disappointing that I still had to join a queue to collect my ticket before I could go in. Once inside, it was already busy and I wondered if late in the day might have been better. I can understand the attraction – there are so many beautiful works of art here.

I couldn’t get a good view of my favourite Botticelli Primavera as there were too many people with their ipads crowding around. But I managed to slide in at the front and get a closer look at all the wonderful flowers which have always been my favourite part. This painting and The Birth of Venus are both behind glass and this inevitably takes something away from the impact. I don’t know what the answer is, I believe great art should be on show for everyone to see and therefore protection is sadly necessary. By contrast, I found myself alone in what they call the Michelangelo room where the Tondo Doni is. The Sleeping Ariadne statue in front is not his, but he was a great admirer of it.

My hotel room was a garret at the top of the building (people travelling alone are often shoved somewhere like behind reception or up on the roof). One advantage of this was that I could get on the roof itself and I had this view of the Duomo and Giotto’s Bell Tower. I love this photo of these two in the pinkish setting sun.

My Florentine food tour was in the Oltrarno area – the other side of the Arno.  It’s described as ‘vibrant’ and ‘lively’ but I found it a calm relief from the frantic centre.

The first stop was for Budini di Riso – a happy combination of rice pudding and pastry. They are quite small tarts and are perfect as a sweet treat with a coffee. We then went to Macelleria Mignani, a well-known local butchers (apparently where Daniel Day-Lewis buys his meat). Here we tried some cold meats including the Florentine speciality Finocchiona Salami (fennel-flavoured).

At the famous I Trippaio d’San Frediano stall in the Piazza dei Nerli, I had lampredotto panino which is a cow’s stomach (the fourth stomach to be precise) or tripe sandwich. The name and, let’s be honest, the look of the meat, is quite off-putting, but with the herby salsa verde it really was very delicious. I’m not sure the close up of the sandwich below really sells it – I just closed my eyes and tucked in as I so often do when I travel.

We went to Pasticceria Buonamici to watch cantucci being made. Nice with a small glass of Vin Santo but I find them a bit dry on their own. The sign on the wall below shows how far the water rose when the Arno flooded in 1966.

A stop for some crostini and a nice Chianti at Fiaschetteria Fantappiè where the wine is on tap. They also have one of the famous wine windows or ‘buchette del vino’ that were used in the past as a way of avoiding catching the plague from customers. Sadly I didn’t have enough time to try it out.

Calcio Storico is a sport only played in Florence. There are four main teams representing the main quarters of the city, and one of the players for Bianchi (Santo Spirito district) has opened a trattoria, I’Raddi, which is where we went next. The sport is a bit like football in that there’s a ball and the aim is to score goals, but that’s where the similarity ends. It’s played in the Piazza Santa Croce not a pitch and is extremely brutal. I asked what the rules were and apparently ‘No Biting’ is pretty much it. You can only play if you are a local, but not at all if you’re a convicted criminal.

The restaurant has a great atmosphere and the food was fantastic. I had ribollita for starters and then ox cheek (I forgot to take the photo before I started eating, that’s how good it was).

Everything I ate that day was sublime. The guide gave us a generous list of recommendations of places to eat and where we could get discounts. I was sorry I had done this on my last day and not my first.

I went back to the airport to find my flight cancelled and, as usual, Easyjet left me stranded. I ended up finding a roundabout flight home which included spending a night on a café banquette in Barcelona airport (never again Easyjet, never again). Despite this, and my mini meltdown when I had arrived, this was a good trip. But I’m not sure I would need to go to a major tourist hub again, there are plenty of beautiful places in Italy and the food is good everywhere.