The sights of snow capped mountains, vast plains, clean cows, stuff I have seen only in Bollywood movies, were right in front of me. All through the drive, I only remember clicking pictures. Oh! And we stopped for some delicious Margherita on the way at Auto Grill and carried on our way to Florence on the Auto Strada at 200 kmph.
We reached Florence and it was everything we’d imagined it to be and more. We followed the instructions on Google Maps and drove almost 70 degrees uphill in a street that was less than 8 feet wide. We did it. Finally, we reached our hotel, Villa Agape. And the views! Oh my God the views! They were breathtaking.
The property had a curious charm. The origins of Villa Agape are actually lost in history.
It changed hands a few times, and in the process expanded to a beautiful estate. At one point it was owned by Galileo’s close friend and fellow academician. In fact, we learnt that Galileo spent a part of his house arrest in this villa. Until 2014 it was owned by the Stabilite nella Carità Sisters, and was a place for spiritual exercises, conferences, meeting, studying days, short or long periods to rest in solitude for physical and spiritual relaxing. The nuns renamed the Villa to Villa Agape. And in 2015 with a new management, it has become a wonderful hotel in the hills of Florence.
We literally lived in a place of historic significance and I didn’t feel the weight of it until just now.
“Sometimes I arrive just when God’s ready to have someone click the shutter.” –
Ansel Adams
Much like Rome, you need several days to get even a glimpse of Florence. If you really want to see it properly, you should probably just move there. There is no way you can take it all in, in a day. We tried.
We started our day early in the morning, after a sumptuous breakfast. We got dropped off by the hotel cab in the city centre, which is where we began discovering the gorgeous city of Florence. We walked the entire city on foot, under the Tuscan sun.
We started at Palazzo Duomo which was gorgeous, to say the least. We walked around for a bit and then decided to climb up to the tomb. The climb to the top of Brunelleschi’s dome at Palazzo Duomo was probably the scariest thing I have ever done, I am supremely claustrophobic. I was in tears because of the narrow stairway and dim lights. V walked up with me, step by step and calmed me down. Once were up there, the view was worth all that effort and more. And as we made our way down to discover the Lindt cafe right outside, the fear was gone in seconds.
My personal favourite, though was Ponte Vecchio. This bridge does get packed with tourists, but it really is a special place that you should experience once. Legend has it that if you and your loved one attach a padlock to any surface of the famous bridge and then throw away the key into the Arno River below, your love will last forever. Funny thing is, you can’t do that anymore, but people still do!
We went on to cover almost everything Palazzo Vecchio (Dante’s death mask), Palazzo Pitti, Boboli Gardens, Uffizi, San Lorenzo, Piazzale Michenangelo. Soon, it started getting dark and the entire city started shutting down, by 7:00 pm. o_o
After one very scary walk to Piazzale Michelangelo, imagining multiple situations of being mugged, killed, hurt and what not, we stared at David’s statue and his teeny weeny for a brief minute and got done for the day.
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