The Entrepreneur's Travel Log

Florence Italy & the Medici Palace

Florence, Italy is rated the #1 European vacation spot by Travel & Leisure Magazine (Aug 06.) I can tell you why. It is absolutely, positively the most captivating city I've ever been to. Maybe it's because I'm such a history addict and I love books on the European history. I've recently been reading many fiction books on the 13th Century Italian culture. So visiting Florence and the Medici Palace felt like I was stepping into one of my novels.

To get to Florence from our cruise ship, we took a train through the Tuscan Countryside. I can see why it is such romantic area to visit -- the grapevines, Tuscan villas and terrain is absolutely delightful. We weren't able to stop but it is a must-see for our next trip to Italy.

The bridge has a legend -- apparently Hitler decided NOT to bomb it because he thought it was so amazing. The bridge links old Florence to the Medici Palace -- where the ruling royalty lived and is now a museum. The bridge used to be filled with butchers but because they threw out their meat cuttings into the water and polluted the river, the government kicked them out and now hundreds of little tourist shops exist.

It was a rainy day in Florence so to get warm and nourish our bodies a bit, we ducked into a wonderful little cafe. We ordered these gastronomic delights -- little sandwiches with mozzarella, ham and tomatoes that we could have eaten the rest of our trip -- and real Italian espresso.

Our next stop was the Medici Palace museum. Now luckily (or not, depending on your view of crowds) we somehow arrived in Florence on a national holiday where all the museums were free. Unfortunately it made it quite difficult to get into all the museums we wanted to see but it could be a blessing in disguise because we spent HOURS at the Medici Palace.

We couldn't take pictures inside the museum but each room was filled with art and remnants of the Medici rulers and their significant guests. The frescos (wall and ceiling paints) were breathtaking. I've been reading about them forever and it was just amazing. Each room had a sign that explained what the room was used for, how lived in it and it's history. Wow. I was standing where Kings and Queens slept. =-)

One of my favorite wings was the Costume Gallery. Outfits that they wore in the 17th century and beyond were preserved. Then, we moved on to the gardens. This was absolutely one of my most favorite experiences on the whole trip. The gardens were more expansive than the palace itself. There were wooded walking areas, fountains, groundskeepers homes, statues, rose gardens. Just beautiful. Everything has been preserved from the original landscaping when the Medici wife modeled her "backyard" after her famous Parisian friends.







Check out the hedges and the view from the balcony of one of the garden buildings. We could have spent an entire day at this one place. But we had many more areas we wanted to experience before we left. I'll post more on Florence soon!

posted by Melanie Strick @ 8:25 PM 0 comments

Sorrento and Positano, Italy by Scooter

"Oh, beautiful Sorrento. You won't ever want to leave." One of my past clients said to me before I left for my trip. Well, she was right. This was by far one of my most favorite trips on the entire excursion throughout Italy.

Once Mark & I landed at port, we jumped a water taxi to Sorrento. Our first order of business was to find a scooter so we could make our way over to Positano on the Amalfi Coastline. After getting lost three times trying to get out of the city, we finally made it into the country and the most amazing views of the Amalfi Coastline.

The Amalfi Coastline is a magical windy road on the side of a mountain with old towns and little castles which are now hotels, restaurants and night clubs nestled into the rocks overlooking the ocean. We even found little "towns" carved into the side of mountains like replicas. If there hadn't been a big bus on our tail I'd have taken a picture.









After driving for hours taking in the scenery, we came back to Positano, Italy for lunch. The city is quite dense and packed into the hillside (see above pictures). We found a section of town with restaurants that have great views of the ocean and settled on one for lunch. This is where we discovered "rocket lettuce." It's a slightly spicy lettuce grown locally that is delicious. So we enjoyed a wonderful locals lunch of bread, fresh rocket salad and chicken. Italian bread is melt-in-your-mouth good.


After lunch we began to make our way back to Sorrento. Now I had heard that Sorrento was a "must have pizza" area so I went in search of great pizza. We found this piazza where we could people watch and enjoy some authentic pizza. After returning the scooter we walked down to the ferry area and marveled at the century old castle. We had to climb about 100 stairs to get down and we imagined knights and merchants doing the same thing (we do have active imaginations!)

The ferry area has another awesome view of the old walls and castle as well as boats that are docked for fishing. See the picture below that has water and a wall? At the top of that hill is a five star resort that is our next Italian trip destination! All in all, Sorrento was one of my favorite stops. Many people on our cruise didn't go there at all and when we shared our great experience they realized that the Amalfi Coastline is not one to miss! Plan for a few days to really get the full experience!

posted by Melanie Strick @ 8:51 PM 0 comments