What a Pitti...

Last night we discovered there was no water to our apartment. We didn't know whom to call since the assistant who showed us to our apartment lives 2 doors down and we figured she already knew the situation. So we patiently waited and did without running water for the night (thank goodness we had bottled water in the refrigerator). We figured surely someone was working on it and knew about the problem.

This morning when we got up, the water was still off. Both of us are getting a little bothered by it now. About 10:00 AM we ran into another renter next door who said his water was off too. Finally, Jim called Gabriella (the assistant) and told her we had been without water now for yesterday and today. She was shocked! She didn't know and would have it fixed within a half an hour. Sure enough, half an hour later someone was at our door informing us that the water was now on. I guess it was just a circuit breaker-easily fixed. She felt badly that we didn't call last night. I guess we just assumed she knew the situation since she lives here but she must not have been affected. So we learned our lesson. No more sitting by and being patient.

After a nice hot shower, we were ready to tackle the cold front blowing through Italy and see some more of this city. We walked from our apartment to the Ponte Vecchio (the gold merchants) and to the Pitti Palace.

The palace was built on a hill (to challenge the Medici's) by Brunelleschi (the one who built the dome the Duomo!) It is a big, formidable, castle looking building--fit for a king! After Mr. Pitti died, the Medici's bought it anyway. Today, it is filled with art. It houses the largest collection of Raphael's in the world. You go on a walking tour of room after room of paintings, sculpture, some original furniture, and some incredible marble-inlaid tables. It was all very nice and looked very palatial (althought not anywhere as palatial as Versailles) but after walking from one end to the other on the first floor and then going up to the second floor, we were very tired of walking and became less intense art connoisseurs.

Sidebar: Three interesting sidenotes that I should tell you about. Number one: You hear us complaining of all the walking we do and all of the stairs we climb. Part of the reason, is that in all of Italy (and the same in France) THERE IS NO PLACE TO SIT DOWN! All of the outdoor cafes you see are not for sitting, the are for eaters! You have to be eating at the restaurant in order to sit. There are very, very few public benches.

Number two: Italians (and the same in France) HATE to give change. It doesn't matter how much you spend or how much money you give them. If your purchase is for six Euro and you give them a fifty, they ask if you have a one Euro coin, so they can give you 45 Euros in change. If you spend 202 Euros, and give them 220, they'll ask if you have two Euros! Now you might think, "well that's OK, they just want to use bills for giving change." Today, our purchase was for 13 Euros and we gave them a 50. Sure enough, they asked for 3 more Euros, which we did give them. So the change was 40 Euros--they gave us a 20, a 10, a 5, and 5 Euros in coin! We just have to laugh. They don't use computer cash registers like we do, and I just don't think they like to do the math!

Number three: Buildings are always be remodeled (and the same in France) here since everything is so old. They always erect these immense scaffolding shells around the buildings (you've probably seen a lot of them in our pictures). But one nice thing they do many times, is they have a covering printed to show how the area covered by the scaffolding will look. I'm sure it is a see-thru material, which helps greatly to hide the ugliness of the scaffolding. (look closely at the first picture above)

After the Pitti Palace we walked back across the Arno River, past the gold merchants (and Maridee didn't buy one thing) and right to the Baptistery. It was about 3:00 pm and there was no line to get in. We took advantage of the situation and paid our 3 euro to see the inside. It is BEAUTIFUL!

Even though it is small, the Byzantine mosaics on the domed ceilings are still incredible. The entire ceiling just glows in gold! We sat on a bench with our information pamphlet and could see so clearly everything that was mentioned. You really can see Judgement Day while in the Baptistery! There were maybe 50 people in there and it wasn't crowded at all. Plus they let you take pictures! So we got some beautiful photos of this spectacular place. Of course this is the place with brass "Gates of Paradise".

While we were right there, we decided to go back to the Duomo to see it again but at a different time of day. We are always amazed at the massiveness of this Cathedral. They say it can hold 30,000 people at one time. This time we directed our camera to other shots for you to see. Though we couldn't get near the altar at all, we zoomed
in on the famous Della Robbia's over the doors at the sides of the altar. But still the beauty of Il Duomo is the dome and the frescoes painted there. Probably the only way we can get up close and personal to the dome is to climb the 500 stairs there! We will definitely do that next week!!! Print this post