Day 18 Saturday 29th December 2012 Florence (Cathy)
I am writing the diary in a hotel room that is still echoing
with the sounds of a Brock reunion. I have cleared up some of the devastation
although some repairs will have to be made by the management. Three branches of
the Brock family gathered in this room a short while ago and had several
reasons to celebrate, not the least being the fact that we were all together.
But let me start from the beginning.
This morning in our hotel in Rome I sprang from my bed at
5.30 am, not that I had intended to be so early but I had not adjusted the time
on my cell-phone and so the hour of my awakening was 6.30……….. Namibian time.
Never mind I was awake anyway and so proceeded to shower, dress and finish my
packing while my beloved family continued to snore and snuffle under the
blankets. There is a certain feeling of virtue attached to being awake an hour
and a half before one’s family but it fades after a while and so churlishly I
made loud getting-up noises to wake them up as well but with only limited
success, Alex needs nothing short of a depth charge to wake up early when on
holiday.
Eventually everyone was up and we had breakfast and finished
packing. While Chris was handing in the key and paying the municipal lodging
tax (bit cheeky) I nipped across the road to visit the little church that has
been capturing my imagination over the
past days. The Basilica San Vitale is well frequented and seems to have an
active congregation. I have been sure that its very modest exterior hides
something special and I was right. As I went in matins was beginning and the
white robed priests were presiding over a small collection of faithful beneath
the most beautiful painted ceiling and walls over the altar. I just knew that
it would be special, what a little treasure.
We made it to the Terminali station with time to spare
before our train at 8.55 to Florence and I took our booking number to the
ticket office to confirm. After some confusion about queuing numbers and queues
I found a clerk and was told that this number was nothing to do with the trains
leaving this station. The clerk was churlish and unhelpful as only Italian
officials can be when confronted with a distressed tourist. Luckily Beatrice
had been to the customer information office and was told that we were booked
with a different company whose trains left from a different station, not
Terminale but Tribunale. Gosh! We had to zip downstairs to the metro, buy
tickets, travel four stops on the blue line, go up the stairs at a gallop, find
the correct platform and throw ourselves onto what we hoped was the right
train about 30 seconds before it left.
The woman at the customer information had said that we should just make it, this
was a whole new experience of ‘just’! Luckily this was the right train and a
very comfortable one at that. Wifi and electrical connections were provided and
so the kids could Facebook to their hearts’ content as we travelled at high
speed through the countryside. Once my heart had stopped pounding I could relax
and enjoy the landscape which in many respects has not changed from the landscape
that you can find as a background in many an old master painting.
Florence is the end of the line which is great so unloading
of baggage can be done in relative comfort. We decided to take a taxi but we
spurned a guy offering a ride for 30 Euros, sorry mate we’d rather walk! At the
taxi rank we are offered a ride for ten Euros, that’s more like it! The taxi
driver is intrigued by the flags on our luggage. What country? Namibia? Aah!
Our room in the Hotel
Bodoni is not quite as spacious as our room in Rome but the welcome is very
warm and the room has all that we need and is not cramped. It is a very short
walk to the Duomo from here.
The day has turned out lovely and sunny if a bit chilly and
we decide to go to Pisa for the afternoon – after all the kids have to have the
chance to take the daft photos and to see the phenomenon of the leaning tower.
Also Eckart and Wilfried will be there with various family members. The ticket queue
is long at the station but eventually we are armed with our biglietti and hit
the platform just in time for the next train for Pisa. This is proving to be
rather too much of a’ just in time’ day for my nerves. The train is quite
crowded but we find places and at least we are not encumbered with luggage.
In Pisa we meet Wilfried and his girls on the bridge over
the river as we go into town - the sms is a wonderful invention! They have done
their sightseeing and are off to have lunch before moving on to Florence. At
the Duomo we meet Eckart and Kerstin and join them in admiring the church and
its eccentric bell tower while Alex and Beatrice cavort around taking photos of
each other holding up the tower, leaning on the tower and doing other daft
moves with respect to the tower and some daft moves with no respect for the
tower. The cathedral itself is really lovely and a beautiful example of
Romanesque architecture, also the old city wall is intact nearby.
The marble of
the church and its associated buildings contrast dramatically with the
terracotta of the ancient bricks in the city wall. When every possible photo
has been taken we make our way back to the station and return to Florence. Beatrice
and Alex get into a lively conversation with some Nigerians on the train. They
must have been delighted to encounter some other English speaking Africans! By
this time it is quite dark and very chilly and in Florence the Christmas lights
are all lit. The Duomo is floodlit and looks ethereal, particularly since it is
also surrounded by Christmas lights. The kids and I make a diversion to the
Florence Hard Rock Café to buy Alex a pin. This has become a bit of an
obsession with the boy!
There is a digression to the supermarket once Eckart and Kerstin
have booked into the hotel and the provisions are brought to our larger four
person room for making into a salad. The kids meanwhile have moved the
furniture to accommodate all of the family which amounts to 11 people,
exactly
half of the normal Brock assembly. Wine is present in quantity, along with the
salad. Toasts are drunk; to us all for being here, to Tuna for graduating with
her honours degree and to Eckart for being the first of this generation to
become a grand-parent. Mutti must be over the moon! She was getting desperate
for a great-grandchild. After the eating and the toasts and the laughing and
the gossip, the decision was taken to hit the road and see what was what in
town. This is the point where I bowed out. I know my limits. And so here I am
in peace for a short while but not for long! Tomorrow there is
so-much-to-see-and-so-little-time, should be a packed diary, good luck Alex!
Day 19 Sunday 30th December 2012 Florence (Alex)
Well today was our first proper day in Florence and I want
to give the day the heading: “Stairs”
It started off with wouldn’t you know waking and getting up;
always one of those tough choices we go through in our daily life and today I
really wasn’t in the mood for getting up. Well that’s all nice to say but not
easily done with my family around. I put off getting up and changed until the
last possible second, because we still had to have had breakfast by 10 and I
did still want to eat at (somewhat) leisure. Once up and dressed we were faced
with today’s first challenge: climbing the stairs to the breakfast buffet (66).
The breakfast was simple, but nice; bread rolls with various topping, freshly
squeezed orange juice, some nice berry cake and the choice between coffee, tea
or hot chocolate.
Then off into Town, because we had decided to go up the
tower of the famous Florence Cathedral, also known as The Basilica di Santa
Maria del Fiore. The walk to the cathedral wasn’t far and we knew the way
already, so in no time we were at the foot of the tower. There was a line of
course, so we had to stand in that. Surprisingly there are quite a lot of Gypsy
beggars, sad but they also pester you a lot which doesn’t endear them to me.
Finally at the front of the queue we bought our tickets and then started
climbing the 414 stairs to the top, phew that was a lot of work, especially
because the passages had been designed for smaller people, walking in single
file, but nowadays there are larger people with “ oncoming traffic”. So you had
to stop very often to let a group of people past and then rush forwards, or
rather up, so as not to be run over by more people.
Well I arrived at the top way ahead of the rest of my
family, for I had managed to overtake a bit. The view was absolutely breath
taking, we were able to see all of Florence and even the snow covered hills in
the background. Today was a wonderfully sunny day and not too cold, so it was a
pleasure being up at the top of the tower, seeing the city as we would ants.
Then came the task of descending the stairs, one thinks climbing up is tough,
wait for the descent is all I can say to this!
We couldn’t go into the Cathedral, because there was Sunday
mass and thus we decided to walk to the river Arno and the famous Pointe
Vecchio, a bridge in short. On the way though we walked past the Palazzo
Vecchio, the City’s town hall and another key building in my computer game I
must add. In front of the Palazzo Vecchio are a lot of sculptures of naked or
half naked people and a copy of David, just to warn the squeamish. Then we
walked on towards our goal, past queues and queues of people wanting to go into
the Uffizi Gallery, but the queues were so long that even my mother opted out.
Then once we were at the river we saw the Pointe Vecchio and
then went over it. Someone then had tried to take something from my mother’s
hand bag and succeeded in opening it and rummaging around, but there was
nothing of value in the hand bag so they must have gone off annoyed that this
tourist had nothing.
We then met up with Eckart and Kerstin at the Piazza del
Pitti, a large manor which was built to show power over the Medici family by
another wealthy family, only to find that they had gone bankrupt and that the
Medici family had bought the manor up. We had lunch, buying the essentials from
a nearby supermarket and then sat in front of the manor.
We then decided to go up to the Piazzale Michelangelo,
because there was to be another wonderful panorama. This meant climbing another 188 stairs, but once at the top it was clear that this effort had also paid
off. Definitely the best view in Florence and I would recommend that any visit
to Florence has to be accompanied with this. There was a musician playing very
nice music and so we sat down and enjoyed the atmosphere.
Then we had a little drink/ice cream, on the menu we found a
cocktail called “Alexander” which we had to try out of course. It was OK, not
the most spectacular thing I’ve ever tasted.
Then we went up to the Monte Alle Croci, a church at the top
of the hill very pretty, here we discovered that there was to be a organ and
trumpet Concert, which we listened to. Well rather my parents listened to it,
Beatrice and I left and went to back to the musician and when it got dark made
our way back to the hotel.
At 19:30, when everyone was back, we went off to Wilfred’s flat
for the evening; just getting there was a challenge because the road he lived
on was very long and so we discovered that he lived at the other end of the
street than we had entered.
Once there, we were greeted with the pungent aroma of cooking,
seafood and pasta and a whole lot more. It was a really enjoyable evening and
the food was great as well.
At about 10 my mother, Beatrice, Eckart and Kerstin left.
Then at 11’clock we, the ones left, decided it would be a good idea to have ice
cream and so off went Tuna, Peya, Pena and I in search of a Gelateria. It took
us about 15 mins to find one at the Cathedral and by this time we were
absolutely frozen, even having 3 layers on. Here we then bought Ice cream,
which tasted brilliant by the way, then we still had another two ice cream cups
to take back to the others. This meant having to have our hands exposed to the
harsh and bitterness of the night. We thus walked back a bit more briskly, than
before and had to sprint the last 300m. The parents were grateful, but in my
opinion not enough, because Tuna and I, the ice cream bearers, had to run hot
water over our hands and had to wait about a minute, before regaining any
feeling.
Then it wasn’t that long before my father and I made our way
home a surprisingly short walk only 20mins. Then bed!
|
Where
|
Number of Stairs
|
|
to reception
|
66
|
|
to ground
|
96
|
|
tower up
|
414
|
|
tower down
|
414
|
|
to Michelangelo
|
188
|
|
from Michelangelo
|
188
|
|
to hotel room
|
19
|
|
to ground
|
19
|
|
Wilfred*4
|
56
|
|
to hotel room
|
19
|
|
Total
|
1479
|
Day 20 Monday 31st December 2012 Florence (Christof)
Having ‘done’ most of the important things yesterday, we can
take things more relaxed today, therefore breakfast in the last minute before the
cut-off time at 10:00. The others are all doing their own things. Our (the 4
McBrocks) first thing is to go into the huge central Duomo (cathedral) with the
omnipresent red tiled dome – yesterday we climbed the tower right next to it.
In contrast to the richly decorated (white and pale dark green) outside the
inside is rather plain, with the exception of the inside of the dome which is
adorned by the most impressive Vasari’s “Last Judgement” (1572 – 4) with the
typical gory hell scenes.
Thereafter we amble around the street markets a bit until we
finally go into the amazing Leonardo da Vinci museum. What an all-round
technological genius !! in addition to his more known painting (Mona Lisa) and
sculpting (David) achievements. The least known are his military technology
skills: he designed the first tank!
After that Alex goes back to the hotel and I still go
shopping (well, looking at fashion things) with Cathy and Beatrice in various
fashion stores, before we split up further.
Cathy – while the
rest of the family was at the Da Vinci exhibition, I queued to see San Lorenzo,
the parish church of the Medici family. Michelangelo was supposed to do the
façade for this church and submitted plans but somehow never got around to it,
so it sits even now, an unfinished building project presenting an
uncharacteristically plain face to the world. Clustered around it is the
leather market, hundreds of little stalls, smelling wonderfully of tanned skins
and showing a huge array of goods, but I resisted their blandishments and
stoically queue for it seems ages. Did they have some sheltered employment
scheme at the ticket office? Eventually I got into the church to find it packed
with a treasure trove of art works including pulpits by Donatello and a huge
fresco by Bronzino, this is definitely power building.
Chris again, I do
some more window shopping on my own before I return to the hotel around 16:00.
I go shopping with Alex at the comprehensive supermarket close to the hotel …
we are the hosts for the ‘pre-heating’ session at around 18:00 before going to
our pre-booked restaurant for 19:30 for the evening. Also get some sparkling
wine for midnight on the square around the Duomo.
Cathy, Beatrice
and I decided to do some more exploring on our own since Chris and Alex
mentioned going up the hill again and we didn’t want more steps! As it happens
they didn’t. We started off by searching for the Palazzo Davanzati which hold
an exhibition of Renaissance daily life. It has very weir opening hours and id
open on the occasional Monday, unfortunately on this occasional Monday it was
closed BUT!!!! we found an H&M shop nearby, Beatrice was delighted and
after a selection session and a trying on session she selected a couple of
garments, one of which she would wear this evening. we then moved onto the
church of Santa Croce, I wanted badly to see the Giotto wall paintings. Eckart
and Kerstin caught us up and queue jumped – of course we were keeping a place
for them! Cimabue’s crucifix is also in the church and the tombs of several
famous Florentines, including Machiavelli, Michelangelo, Rossini, Dante and
Galileo. We had a real cultural feast and then as it was getting dark we made
our way home to the hotel. We have got quite good at navigating by now. Would
love to stay longer!
Chris Well,
ultimately we’re all in our hotel room together for some hectic pre-heating
with some snacks.
The restaurant, within a stone’s throw of the Duomo, proves
to have a lovely ambience and our table of 11 is lively. Both Peya (vegetarian)
and Kerstin (no gall-bladder) are caringly catered for outside the set 5-course
menu. To our amazement the 5-course menu turns out to be a 10-course menu,
because they automatically serve both ‘options’ (or better, what we had assumed
to be options) per course. Thus the €50
per pax has turned out to be excellent value for money.
By 23:15 we brace ourselves for the elements outside – we’re
walking straight into what feels like a full-scale military battle – massive
bangers go off all around us – first we flinch but then we simply get used to
the din. A total ocean of tightly packed people. Wilfried’s kids steer us to
another piazza closer to the railway station, it is a real battle to move in
any direction. Ultimately we get there and see a band stand, with an excellent
lightshow, in the far distance. Closer we can’t get. The bangers, mainly in the
form of fireworks, continue unabated, over and above the loud band, but we
hardly register them. Soon it is time for the count-down to the New Year and
the world erupts with flashes, canon shots and the band. Champagne corks pop
all round and us 11 all embrace each other with the best wishes for the next
year.
Later the girls decide to ‘quickly’ go to their youth hostel
‘just around the corner’ to relieve themselves from the copious liquid intake
(the few makeshift public conveniences have endless queues outside and what it
would be like inside doesn’t bear thinking about) and Alex joins them.
Unfortunately Alex has our hotel key on him obliging us to wait for him for
what to turns out to be a half hour (!). In the meantime the plaza is still packed
as before, but increasingly the victims of excessive alcohol intake are lying
in gutters puking, some being assisted by friends or even ambulances, whose
siren sounds and blue lights hardly stand out amongst the sensory assault.
Finally we get our key. Cathy, me and Beatrice can get back
to the hotel. The roughly half-hour walk is still chock-a-block with people in
various states of survival modes. By 01:45 we’re back. I wake up later and note
that Alex is now also lying in his bed.
Alex: Well after the
Oldies and Beatrice had left, the party really got going, I really don’t want
to go into too much detail about what we saw, but it was a really awesome
night. Pena and Tuna still were kind enough to escort me home, not that I was
completely drunk, but rather for the company and protection. I finally was
asleep by 4am.
Day 21 Tuesday 1st January 2013 Florence (Beatrice)
We got up as usual at 9am and had breakfast soon after. The
breakfast was as great as usual with added Panettoni Italian celebration
cake. Afterwards we went back to our room washed, relaxed and packed until it
was noon. Then we, Eckart and Kerstin walked to the train station guided by
Alex, who took us one of the longest and complicated way possible and since he
was dashing of ahead we could not say anything. But it was a good way to say
good bye to Florence, for the streets had been cleared and cleaned! The
cleaners must have gotten up at the crack of dawn to hose down all the streets.
I’ll take my hat off to them. At the train station we sat down in a café and
waited with the others for our train and soon we were in the train on our way
to Venice.
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