Florence & Venice

After a very comfortable train ride from Rome we arrived in the beautiful city of Florence and walked about 10 minutes from the train station into the centre of town to find our apartment directly across the road from the Duomo, the massive cathedral that dominates the central square. It took about 150 years to build, starting in 1294. Although the exterior is incredibly ornate, almost too fussy for such a huge structure, the inside is relatively austere for these parts but nevertheless still manages a nice ceiling painting.

We strolled through town towards the Ponte Vecchio, an ancient bridge with a whole lot of shops lining both sides. Apparently they all used to be butchers but in 1593 it was decided to allow only jewelers on the bridge for some reason. Most of the shops still seem to be jewelers.

The walk back to our apartment was very picturesque with darkness falling as we crossed back over the river. Florence was the city where we discovered gelato in a big way. It was so beautifully presented everywhere that it seemed only right to indulge at every opportunity. This was our most upmarket accomodation of the trip and the girls shared a beautiful big room with a little kitchen hidden away behind folding doors. As usual there was the lengthy negotiation about who would share the double bed and who would have the single foldaway.

One of our walks took us over the river again on a different bridge to the church of Santa Maria del Carmine which, according to our map/guide, was worth seeing for its ceiling frescoes. I had to pretend we were just going for a walk because churches were starting to wear a little thin by this stage with the girls. However, they tolerated a brief visit and the frescoes certainly were worth seeing. There were some which were a study in perspective, and it was impossible to tell where the actual solid features of the building's construction stopped and the frescoes began, so seamless was the transition and so convincing the fake pillars, ledges, etc.

We crossed back over the river on the bridge next to the Ponte Vecchio so had a good view of it and the solitary rower training on the river. Speaking of rowing, Jessye was keen not to lose too much condition before the January rowing camp which would determine crew placements for the 2009 rowing season so she tried to find a gym wherever possible. Close to where we were staying there was a very flash one which offered a free trial session to prospective clients. While Jessye sweated up a storm for a couple of hours, Rosie and Sophie wandered around the extensive market just around the corner.

The highlight of Florence for me and one of the highlights of the whole trip was seeing Michaelangelo's David. The museum where he's housed, Galleria dell'Accademia, was close to our place but the queue was long, even in winter. Luckily they have a scheme not dissimilar to Disneyland whereby you can go to a church up the road and buy your tickets for a particular time slot later in the day and then show up at the appointed time in a special miniqueue for advance booking holders. We also did this for the Galleria degli Uffizi, one of the most important art collections in Italy. Florence, or at least the central part we got to know a bit, is so compact and not scary that the girls felt fine about leaving Peter and me at the Uffizi (I had to look at every painting in the place) and making their way back home via the gelati route. Some churches and most art museums prohibited photography so that's about it for Florence photos. The next morning we boarded a train for Venice.

It was the first time in Italy for all of us (except for my 2 days in Milan with the MSO 2 years ago) so arriving at the train station in Venice and getting on the boat to the Venice we've all seen pictures of was a bit like seeing the New York skyline for the first time - so familiar but so exciting because this time it's for real. We stayed in a tiny hotel just off St Mark's Square with lots of stairs and no lift. I wanted to have a look in St Mark's but the girls were so totally over churches after Florence that I couldn't find any takers. So I left the heathen to do their own thing and went off on my own.

The Square was being prepped for News Year's Eve celebrations later that night and the town was obviously full of tourists but there were still lots of empty nooks and crannies.

While getting hopelessly lost I came upon a pretty little theatre, Teatro La Fenice, where a concert was about to take place. I hadn't heard of the orchestra named after the theatre but the programme looked good so I thought I might as well give it a go. Unfortunately all the cheap seats were sold out but after patient haggling with a scalper I managed to get one of his 150 euro tickets for 40 euros. I was escorted by an usher to my personal box with 4 chairs in it just a couple of boxes along from the central one obviously intended for dignitaries or rulers of the day. After a while the other 3 seats were occupied. The orchestra turned out to be very good and the concert really enjoyable. The theatre itself was gorgeous and reminded me a little of the Marinsky Theatre in St Petersburg where the MSO played in 2003.

By the time the concert had finished it was getting dark and I made my way back to the others who had also been doing independent wandering. We set out to forage for food trying and failing to follow instructions given to us by the chap at our hotel. To cut a long story short we walked for miles, met a very rude waiter who wouldn't give us a table at one of the canal-side restaurants because we couldn't persuade him we were going to spend enough money on this lucrative night and eventually ended up at a very average downmarket pizza joint with upmarket prices. We rang Grandma Chris from there to wish her Happy Birthday on New Year's day in Christchurch.

After resting back at the ranch we girded our loins and ventured out to join the gathering throngs in St Mark's Square. It was below zero and as if on cue, just before midnight it started to snow. By the time we cheered in the New Year the square was totally packed. Jessye, Rosie and I were in the midst of the throng because Jessye in particular wanted to be right amongst it and as close as possible to the action. Sophie didn't want to be squashed and unable to see anything so she and Peter stayed at the back and side where she could stand on a rubbish bin for a better view. But when it was time to exit there was no escaping the pushing, heaving masses. The big girls and I got back to our rooms about half an hour before Peter and Sophie and couldn't reach them by phone so we were concocting all sorts of worst case scenarios involving Sophie getting separated from Peter and lost in the crush which at the time seemed like a distinct possibility. In the end they had just taken longer to escape from the mayhem and everybody was fine.

On New Year's Day Peter left us to catch a train to Austria to pick up a rental car which he drove back to Venice the next morning to pick us up. Unfortunately the train schedule on January 2nd wouldn't have allowed us to make our rendezvous with Markus Tomasi, the MSO's other concertmaster, whose parent's cottage we were going to use in the Austrian Alps and you're not allowed to take rental cars from one country and return in another so Peter sacrificed a day in Venice to pick up a car in Austria while the rest of us enjoyed another day in Venice. We woke to snow-covered rooftops and St Mark's Square looking decidedly worse for wear. Eating was a much better experience this day when we managed to find the area our guy at the hotel had tried to direct us to the day before. This was where we had our favourite pizza in Italy too, a thick-crust variety at a little mainly takeaway joint.

The morning of our departure was suitably foggy and made for an atmospheric boat trip back to our planned meeting point with Peter. As we made our way to the boat I managed to persuade the girls that you couldn't really visit Venice and walk straight past St Mark's without going inside just once even for a minute so while I stayed with the suitcases they did agree to set foot in it briefly. Next, the eagerly awaited ski interlude.