Firenze - Giorno Uno

First couple of days we had stayed in Florence before moving further south into the picturesque countryside near Siena. So this is about the first evening after arriving in Florence in the late afternoon of a very hot day. The flight from Berlin to Pisa was surprisingly short, the most time-consuming part of that journey was the ample breakfast we had at Schönefeld airport. Then, from Pisa a quick and easy ride with the Italian railroads to Florence where our small but cozy hotel Casa del Garbo, right on the Piazza della Signoria, was awaiting us.
Actually it's so small you have to make an appointment for the check-in because the reception desk is only open during business hours. So we were in a hurry, had to pull our luggage through the crowded city in the heat of that sunny day, pushing through the heaps of tourists. Anyway, in the end the nice reception girl was still there at her desk, the room..or better the suite..was great and the location awesome, so we had big smiles on our faces after all.


After a short stroll in the neighborhood...
..we discovered the small wine bar, where one can taste several of the great wines of the region for only a small ammount of money. They also offer small Italian snacks to have beside the wine, this was the perfect place for a casual dinner which we were looking for. It's located right behind the Palazzo Vecchio.
Later, when we had learned a great deal about the different wines ;-) we went for the other attraction Florence has beside history, culture, architecture: shopping :-)





In the end of that nice day, when we were on our way back to the hotel...
...we discovered, as a big surprise, that just this night there was open air opera on the Piazza della Signoria, playing La Traviata. I can't think of a better place in the world to watch that, it was so exciting. And best of all, after the music had finished, we just opened the door to the hotel right from the Piazza and were home, I bet we had the shortest way home of the whole audience :-)