February 4, After Venice , my husband, Adam, and I continued on to Florence, because I had never been there and he thought that I, as someone who loves architecture, needed to see it. We took the train from Venice, and as in so many other cities, the area around the train station makes a weak first impression.
But then we came upon the Duomo—extraordinary during the day, and even more dazzling later that evening. The marble facade glows; it reminded me of both Florentine paper and mosques in Istanbul. The contrast between the restored and unrestored parts was remarkable. While I missed a grander lobby that such a location warrants—the existing one is small and crammed with art and vitrines showcasing luxury goods—our room was lovely to look at. Rooms , I should say, because we asked to change after the street noise buskers, a carousel, amplified tour guides, people in general… proved unbearable.
Even the second room, on the back of the hotel, was far from quiet. In every other way, the property is terrific, and the service was impeccable. We wished that the hotel would install better windows—or that we could pick the whole place up and move it somewhere else. Our first 36 hours in Florence were rough.
Italian tourists were plentiful, too. On top of all that, the air quality was atrocious. It was that way in Venice as well; an inversion in winter traps emissions from industrial sites nearby. You could feel it in your throat, and then the sensation abated after a rainstorm—a relief, but also confirmation of why breathing was painful. We thought about moving to a hotel outside of town, but we had already spent a lot of money on the trip.
So we made the best of it. And come on, the Ponte Vecchio is pretty amazing, as was the color of the light on the Arno. And I found lots of door hardware and other architectural details to geek out on. Look how the wooden door is carved to match the stone. A glum mummy baby. And how fabulous is this?
