Studio Michelangelo

Most of our fellow travelers were taking early flights out of the Amerigo Vespucci Airport in Florence the next morning, so we all awakened very early, even though we were remaining in Florence for the next couple of weeks.  The distressing news about the election was everywhere, and a lot of jokes were being made about remaining in Italy for the next four years.

Martha had learned to use an app for her iPhone called Apptaxi, and it would prove to be very useful in our time in Florence before the next tour began.  You cannot “hail a taxi” in Italy.  Instead, you provide your pick-up and drop-off address, and you will receive a message telling you when the taxi will arrive, what make and model of car it will be, and what the number on the side will be.  Taxis are reasonably priced, too, and most of the drivers speak some English and tell interesting stories.  The only place taxis are parked is at the airport and the train station, and we easily found one to take us to our Airbnb, called Studio Duomo, which we had located earlier in the trip when we were in Florence.

Coincidentally, our landlady Monica was arriving at the same time, and she showed us in, told us how to use the lock on the door (also operated by an app on the phone), and also gave us several recommendations of local sights to see and restaurants to visit.  The Airbnb was very nice, with a mezzanine bedroom and bathroom and a balcony (perfect for morning Tai Chi) overlooking a quiet courtyard, and I had in fact placed a picture of the balcony on the home screen of my computer and had been looking at it for many months.

Like our room in the Borgo di Cottefreda, and all the other places we would be staying in Italy (as well as in France two years ago) the bathroom was equipped with a bidet as standard equipment.  The Studio Michelangelo was in an old building which had been remodeled with a few other studios in the same building, perhaps condos or rentals, with the front door located on a very busy street, though, as I said in an earlier post, which was also a bus route.  You opened the front door and held your breath!

But you had only to walk half-a-block down the street, turn a corner, and you were on a pedestrian-only street looking directly and up-close at the huge, beautiful dome of the cathedral which we had seen from Piazza Michelangelo in our first view of Florence.

It was a quiet little neighborhood despite its proximity to the cathedral just one block away, from which you could hear church bells ringing all day.  We went to a local market just down the street and stocked up on granola, yogurt, wine, cheese, and crackers.  Monica had left a bottle of very nice red wine on the kitchen table for us.   

After nearly two weeks in a hotel on a tour, it was a welcome change of pace to be on our own for all our meals, and it was also convenient to have a washer/dryer, which we put to immediate use.

We ventured out for a light dinner at Caffe Duomo, just a block away with outdoor tables facing the cathedral – Tuscan soup and bread.  They also had a wine window, which is popular in Florence and are located everywhere.  You knock on a little door, tell them what kind of wine you want, and it appears in the window.  We learned that in the 1600s, wine windows were a safe way to sell wine and food during the Plague because they reduced contact between the seller and buyer.  Now they are curiosities, but one can take a tour of Wine Windows in Florence.  We found so many on our own that there was no need for a tour.