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We decided to take our chances with the rain in Florence today, but we tried to improve our odds by bringing umbrellas and leaving my non-water-resistant camera in the apartment. And things started well – there wasn’t any rain on our walk to the other side of the Arno to visit Boboli Gardens and the Pitti Palace (brought to you by the Medicis, of course). Apple Maps suggested a different route than we’d taken before, so we got to see the other side of Santa Maria Novella Basilica and its piazza, as well as walking across Santa Trinita Bridge (which was destroyed by the Germans during WWII and rebuilt in 1958 “com’era e dove’era” (“how it was and where it was”)).

The other side of Santa Maria Novella church

Yet another monument to the Medici, next to the Ferragano Museum and store

We decided to take advantage of the lack of rain and started our visit in Boboli Gardens (“An Open-Air Museum”, as the signs proclaim). The gardens extend over 30 hectares (74 acres) and there is a LOT of up and down if you want to see everything. We saw most of the major structures marked on the map, but there were miles of trails and hundreds of statues that we couldn’t get to before leaving for lunch.

Pitti Palace and Florence from below the Knight’s Garden

Behind the Knight’s Garden, there’s another castle in the distance!

Cracked Tyndareus (Screpolato, 1997) in the Chestnut Meadow

We left the grounds and had a very nice lunch at La Casalinga (“The Housewife”), which we’d tried to visit on Tuesday (it’s mentioned in Rick Steves, so too many tourists like us know about it and we couldn’t get in that day).

Refreshed, we returned to tackle the main event – the Pitti Palace. We started, as one does, with the Palatine Gallery, which has 28 rooms (plus parts of the Royal Apartments), more than 500 paintings (mostly Renaissance), and very few labels.

We thought about leaving, but there were more sub-museums to visit: Costume and Design (where I took no photos) and Modern Art (which starts in the 18th Century).

Perseus in the Loggia dei Lanzi (Fanfani)

To Victor Emanuelle II King of Italy from the Muncipality of Perguia

There was one more sub-museum to visit, the Treasury of the Grand Dukes, but we’d reached our limit of amazing art for the day and made our escape.

It’s been a long day at the Pitti Palace

The weather had improved while we were inside and we took a leisurely walk back to the apartment, with only a brief stop to admire the bronze pig in the Mercato del Porcellino.

We found tonight’s dinner restaurant through The Fork which has restaurant reviews, a booking service, and discounts. Our choice tonight was the Palazzo Castri 1874, which offered Tuscan cuisine and 50% off all food items! It was wonderful, and we left very happy (and with half a bottle of wine for tomorrow’s dinner). Visit the restaurant if you come to Florence; check out TheFork if you travel to Europe.

We took it easy this morning in hopes that the weather in Florence would improve, but all of our apps said it would be a good day to get out of town, so we took the train to Pisa (I should note that the trains we took today did not run on time), arriving a little before noon.

We followed Rick Steves’ Pisa Walking Tour, beginning with a look back at the station with its Fascist-era arcade (the umbrella vendor was an omen we chose not to heed).

We walked to Piazza Victor Emanuelle II, which was rebuilt after WWII (Pisa was a main target and much of the city was heavily bombed, including the bridge we took over the Arno later in the day). There’s quite a lot of street art in Pisa, including a Keith Haring just off the square.

We had lunch at Leonardo Café e Ristoro and really enjoyed it – everything was fresh and delicious. We split a pistachio cheesecake, something I’d never seen in the US – I’d like to find one this good again!

We continued on Rick Steves’ route until we reached the Arno.

We added a stop at Palazzo Gambacorte (City Hall), drawn to it by the decorations on its wall.

Bronze Medal of Valor for the Resistance – 45 years after the war

The inside had a special exhibit commemorating 100 years of the telephone company!

We crossed the Arno on the Ponte di Mezzo, which was rebuilt after the Allies destroyed it in 1943. and continued through Piazza Garibaldi and along the high-end shopping street, Borgo Stratto, with detours to the Church of St. Michael and Piazza delle Vettovaglie, which the book calls “lively by day and sketchy by night”.

Church of St. Michael (writing on the outside emphasized by me)

Borgo Stretto (note the curves, echoing the river)

I wonder if they have pumpkin spice booze here

We paid our respects to Galileo (again) as well as Ulisse Dini, an Italian mathematician who attended the Schola Normale Superiore (and became its director), which is just down the street in Piazza dei Cavalieri.

Ulisse Dini – Mathematician! He attended the Schola Normale Superiore a block away (and was its director later in life)

Schola Normal Superiore with Medici statue in front

The walk ended at the “Field of Miracles” (Campo dei Miracoli), where we spent a couple of hours exploring and trying to stay out of the rain.

Medici Family Shield in the Duomo ceiling

Galileo’s Lamp (now wired to avoid any chance of swinging)

The workers doing renovation swing like pendulums!

St. John the Baptist welcomes us to the Bapistery

View of the Doumo and Tower from the Bapistery Gallery

We left the Field of Miracles and slogged the most direct route we could find back to the train station, saying “no” to several more umbrella vendors along the way. I left my camera in the bag to keep it dry, but trust me…there was nothing interesting to photograph along the way.

As it turns out, Florence got a lot less rain than Pisa today. How do you say “c’est la vie” in Italian?

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The Garden and the Pitti

Technically, no museums today!