{"id":902,"date":"2019-11-03T04:43:33","date_gmt":"2019-11-03T10:43:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trippingtheawkwardfantastic.com\/vers2\/?p=902"},"modified":"2019-11-07T12:00:30","modified_gmt":"2019-11-07T18:00:30","slug":"free-time-can-be-very-expensive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trippingtheawkwardfantastic.com\/vers2\/2019\/11\/03\/free-time-can-be-very-expensive\/","title":{"rendered":"Free Time Can Be Very Expensive"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Cindy is the smartest trip planner in the world.  She knew that after a full week of touring, tasting, biking, and shopping, we would need a down day.  My body would have thanked her if I had had enough sense to actually hang out at the villa and rest. But, no.  I figured I could rest in Nashville and this is why NSAIDs were invented. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Some of Leonardo Da Vinci’s inventions.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Thursday was the free day.   Give six women a full day in Florence with nothing planned and anything can happen.  We split into two groups, then those groups splintered further.  Sally and I went in search of the Leonardo da Vinci Museum.  There is nothing like a museum to highlight how much you don\u2019t know like that da Vinci and Michelangelo were contemporaries.  Da Vinci was about twenty years older and they hated each other. Who knew? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Da Vinci, though known for his beautiful art, was an engineer and a dreamer at heart.\u00a0 Like all artists, he had to have a wealthy patron.\u00a0 One of his patrons was a Borgia who wielded a reign of terror and conquered his way through Italy.\u00a0 Da Vinci designed any number of lethal weapons that changed warfare forever.\u00a0 When Borgia assassinated one of his best friends, Leonardo decided maybe he should get a different patron.\u00a0 So, Leonardo Da Vinci was basically the Tony Stark of the Fifteenth Century.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was raining, but even in the rain, Florence is beautiful. We stumbled into a new, different plaza in front of the Duomo.\u00a0 Across from it was the Baptistry, an octagonal building with gilded bronze doors.\u00a0 I had been told that this was a \u201cmust-see\u201d and am so glad I did.\u00a0 The Duomo was both glorious and imposing.\u00a0 The designer did not go for a \u201cless is more\u201d aesthetic. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sally and I shopped and walked until about three when we were finally wet and tired enough to head back to the villa. Just before we got there, we ducked into a tiny cafe.\u00a0 Sally had Ribollita and I had Pappa al Pomodoro, both traditional Tuscan soups made with stale bread.\u00a0 Sally\u2019s was vegetable and mine was tomato.\u00a0 That was a favorite dish and one I hope to recreate at home.\u00a0 Beth passed the cafe in the pouring rain.\u00a0 We banged on the window and she came in to join us.\u00a0 While we were eating, four young people came in, ordered coffee, and began to play cards.\u00a0 They were there hours later. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Beth found this at the market.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After Cindy, Dana, Judy, and Beth had a leisurely lunch, they split up.\u00a0 Beth found the Mercator Centrale Firenze, where she drank sangria and wandered amongst the hundreds of vendors.\u00a0 She came home with flowers and one of her favorite adventures of the trip. Judy, who is the most talented and experienced shopper I have ever met, did damage at any number of boutiques. I am living vicariously through her.\u00a0 Cindy and Dana had their hair done.\u00a0 It was very Audrey Hepburn, only Florence not Rome and there was no Gregory Peck involved.\u00a0 They, however, were beautiful.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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By the time Sally, Beth and I got home the others had begun to arrive as well.  We compared purchases, shared our day, and drank wine.  Beth found charming etchings at a shop near our villa, so I ran back out to buy some as well.  They are one of my favorite purchases and the perfect souvenir of Tuscany. Cindy brought home \u201cthe biggest T-bone in the universe.\u201d  We cooked the pasta we had helped make the night before and had that with salads and that fabulous steak.  It was another perfect day.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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November 1st is All Saints Day and they take that very seriously in Florence.  As we were walking to the Accademia Gallery to see Michelangelo\u2019s David, the church bells began to ring.  It was deafening and glorious.  When we walked by the Duomo, we could see the Cardinal and several priests processing out.  That was a special moment and a reminder of how important the day is.  They don\u2019t wait until the next Sunday to celebrate.  They make it a national holiday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We again went different ways agreeing to reconvene at 4 pm for our tour of the Uffizi.\u00a0 At three, Sally, Beth and I saw some attractive men walking along with a camera crew.\u00a0 Beth asked a man who they were.\u00a0 He explained it was a Spanish actor who had appeared on the Italian Big Brother.\u00a0 Then he introduced us to his family, a cousin, the cousin\u2019s wife, and their toddler.\u00a0 It happened that the cousin was a designer who had been to Nashville to show his line to Nordstrom.\u00a0 The wife, Katherine, was from Houston.\u00a0 Soon we were walking with our new friends to their shop, which happened to be on our way.\u00a0 We barely had time to stop in and look around.\u00a0 Everything was beautiful.\u00a0 When a designer goes and pulls a coat in your exact size and tells you that this is the coat you need to buy because something, something, something (he was charming and I was eating it up.) Then he showed Beth a coat.\u00a0 Her\u2019s was navy.\u00a0 I prefer navy. He said absolutely not.\u00a0 I needed to wear black.\u00a0 Beth and I have new coats.\u00a0 The experience was worth the cost of the coats, but the coats are fabulous too.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We hurried to meet our friends only to hit a wall of people. Note to self and any other travelers.\u00a0 Do not plan to visit Italian museums of any kind on a national holiday. The museums are free and everyone and their Aunt Francesca take advantage of that fact.\u00a0 Picture Broadway when the Preds were in the Playoffs during CMA Week and a concert at Nissan Stadium. The Uffizi was that kind of crowded and everyone wanted to go through one door.\u00a0 ONE DOOR.\u00a0 We seriously considered bailing, but it is just wrong to go to Florence and not visit The Uffizi. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I am pretty sure there is no Fire Marshall in Florence.  I have never seen so many people in one line.  We, with our tour group, were finally nearing the front when a group of women came pushing through the crowd. Our tour guide quietly explained to us that they were in the wrong place but were Italian and would not be reasoned with.  It was almost worth the wait to see the man keeping the line send them packing.  I later saw them in one of the galleries so they did get in, just not in front of us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our tour guide was extremely knowledgeable and hilarious.  She did a great job navigating the crowds and showing us the highlights of the museum.  As a rule, I don\u2019t mind crowds, but I was even ready to call it a day when our tour ended.  We will simply have to return to Florence and to the Uffizi on a less crowded, more opportune day.  Maybe in January during an ice storm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I like to eat.\u00a0 I like to eat Italian food. So it surprised even me when I was too tired to eat last night.\u00a0 We set out the leftovers from our meals and everyone grazed.\u00a0 We sat on the terrace, drank chianti, and waved at the people who stared at us.\u00a0 By 9 pm, I called it a night.\u00a0 I finished packing and fell into bed.\u00a0 You know it has been a good trip when you are as tired when you wake up as you were when you went to sleep. I will take that kind of tired any time. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cindy is the smartest trip planner in the world.  She knew that after a full week of touring, tasting, biking,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[120,119,5,1],"tags":[229,188,228,231,237],"class_list":["post-902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food","category-friends","category-travel","category-uncategorized","tag-florence","tag-friends","tag-italy","tag-travel","tag-ufizzi"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paRAVj-ey","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trippingtheawkwardfantastic.com\/vers2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trippingtheawkwardfantastic.com\/vers2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trippingtheawkwardfantastic.com\/vers2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trippingtheawkwardfantastic.com\/vers2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trippingtheawkwardfantastic.com\/vers2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=902"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/trippingtheawkwardfantastic.com\/vers2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":932,"href":"https:\/\/trippingtheawkwardfantastic.com\/vers2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902\/revisions\/932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trippingtheawkwardfantastic.com\/vers2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trippingtheawkwardfantastic.com\/vers2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trippingtheawkwardfantastic.com\/vers2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}