10 31 Saturday

I was feeling a bit off still this morning, and have done very little sight seeing except I suppose it depends on what sights. In the morning I  walked to a typical Parisean corner bistro, 300m down the street. The few I passed were not open. I had a lovely seat in a corner ,next to a window with a good view of both the street and the other  customers. Some interesting sights. I spent 2 hours doing a cryptic crossword, off and on.. I walked back a different way( deliberately). Then lunch , same place. Different seat, but again  good view of street and other diners. 

Notre Dame

Last night I was feeling like I was coming down with some cold or other.   Coughing, bit achy.  And  I was trying to plan my 3 days and gave up and decided to  worry about everything after going to Notre Dame first. I had read that the queue were less first thing in the morning.  So as soon as I woke up at 6ish, I organised myself and left. The metro was not too crowded, but I was not happy at Chatelet, where I got off. I was about 3 levels  undergrund, i tried to follow all the signs to all the exits to other train lines ( which i didnt want)  but i had no idea where any of the streets were , except one, where i stayed in 2019, so i chose that one  . Coffee, croissant for breakfast on the way, then I arrived at the Cathedral 10 min before the opening at 7.50 , the 28th ( I counted) in the queue, so by 7.55 was in. A service was about to start, a sung Eucharist, with a priest with aa good loud voice, which was good. Initially one side and all the back was roped off. But it was opened about 9ish. I spent ages there, looking at the little chapels, the lovely bright new colours. A bit of the front seating stayed roped off even after the service. There was a lady there letting people through if they just wanted to sit and pray. She was  there when I arrived . She was still standing there at 9.45. I went and spoke to her. She said, to her,  it was not a chore but a privilege. 

So after I went out I chatted to some other people who were just milling around, then decided I would just start walking back here , stopping first for more coffee and croissant, then later for lunch, my main meal for the day.  The most direct route, according  to Google was 5km. I got diverted a few times from that ( the same problem as I have mentioned before  -  when I am not concentrating hard  '2nd left and 3rd right' sometimes becomes ' 3rd left and 2nd right' )  Never mind. Also I walked a fair bit around the church and , after leaving here 1km to the metro station  . According  to my trusty watch, I have walked 10.5 km today. But I have been really relaxed and not coughing, so hopefully I will get better and not worse.

At  The first cafe I walked into this morning I stood outside thinking, now I have to say ' bonjour' not ' buongiorno'. I walked in and the guy greeted  me with 'buongiorno'. I stood there speechless, my brain had stopped. He then said ' hullo madam'. I said, ' Bonjour, I am sorry I was slow to speak, but I have just come from Italy and was confused.'  I am not sure how much  he understood. All future conversations were in French. But, I was wearing my purple jacket for warmth.  After the Cathedral  I was stopped by a guy standing near a little van advertising a brand of Italian coffee that I have forgotten  but in all our supermarkets.  He said . ' Buongiorno, madam' but he was French and it was part of the sales pitch. His English was good.  But I don't think he was as good at Italian as he thought he was because I said, in parting 'buon giornata' which is a slightly more formal way of saying good day to someone who you are unlikely to see again that day. He didnot know the word.

Some french bicyclists have the same disregard to pedestrian crossings and direction of traffic as Italian cyclists. 

Paris

A boring, but tiring day. I got to the airport earlier than I needed to, But who knows. I have a possible problem hanging over my head , the lack of fingerprints attached to my passport like should

 have happened in Frankfurt but didnot because the machine I went to was broken but the man told me to go through anyway.  There was no where to wait that was not very noisy. There were some fingerprint machines and about 15 grumpy , loud people with US passports were using them.  I tried putting my passport onto the machine and it told me to go and find a real person. Nope, wait and see, was my approach.

The plane was full, a bit late loading everyone, but then we sat on the tarmac for 55 minutes. The pilot said very sorry, he had lost his slot, then 10, 15 minutes later it was quite windy, so a few minutes later another announcement, very sorry, I lost my slot again because of someproblem on another runway and it happened a third time, but I have forgotten  why. 

I am staying in a very small apartment hotel. There are  about 10 very small apartments, but new and

Very thoughtfully designed. The area i  am in , the 17th arrondissment  is a bit further out than i have stayed before but still I metro ride into the centre or 5 km walk. I will be doing both. I checked that my metro ticket from 2 years ago was valid, it is. I bought from a shop a few doors away a container of salad, 2 slices,of really nice meat, a small quiche ( half for tomorrow) and some choc mousse for dinner.  I have a well equipped little kitchen and a small table and chairs. 

Tuesday and Wednesday.

Tuesday - I queued up for for 45 minutes to get into the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore but the wait was worthwhile. Italian Gothic , so much less twidly bits. The stained glass was mostly quite high up. Despite all the people it was worth seeing. 

Y.esterday my main aim was to go back to the church in Santo Spirito, the one that doesnot let visitors take photos, hence it is not very popular.  When I got there , I found I had forgotten to check if it was going to be open. So I sat in a cafe in the leafy square under a tree for quite a while. Some people buy an espresso and drink it in one big mouthful. I can make 1 last about 3/4 hour.  On my way back to my apartment in a palace, I went through a different bunch of Hugh end shops which were mainly little kids clothing, so I take back whatever  I said before.

Another retraction. Weeks ago I saw what I thought was a shop selling just dog collars. There were several life size models of dogs, buy no cats. I found a shop of the same name in a different part of Florence and there was a model of a cat with a collar on a lead in the shop.

Monday

Today I went on a hunt for some token souvenirs for my grandchildren. I also bought myself a jigsaw. It is  a picture of one of the frescoes on the wall of the Convent I was in yesterday. Plenty of small detail  ( the last supper) and no vast expanse of sky or water which annoy me.  When I was in Paris in 2019 I bought a jigsaw of a stylised map of Paris . Very detailed and very accurate. I have done it quite a few times. 

For the rest of the morning  I just wandered along some streets I havenot walked along. The police were out in force today. Apparently  there were demonstrations over the weekend, but I was not anywhere near. Today I just saw many groups of police. This afternoon there has been a helicopter flying around.

I have been surprised at the number of signs/notices   eg real estate descriptions of houses,  menus translated into English, that i have seen that are bad English.  Sometimes just plain wrong.

When i was in Milan in 2007, I walked  1 day around the fancy area of all the big name designer shops.  As well as adult clothes I saw quite a few shops selling baby, toddler, and children's very fancy and expensive clothing too. I have only managed to find 1 in Firenze.  Maybe habits of the rich have changed in 20 years.

, 

Last weekend in Florence

Yesterday   I just pottered around my apartment  apart from 3 trips , early coffee and croissant, then second coffee and some food shopping, then , in the early evening, I went to a local bar for an aperol spritz. I quite like sitting quietly in a corner reading and occassionally watching other people..  

Today i went to the museum of the Convent of San Marco. . It was built in the 13th century but enlarged significantly in 1437, paid for by one of the Cosmo s. It is quite plain with lots of small rooms, but lots and lots of frescoes by Fra Angelico. I think of convent  for nuns, but in those days  a convent could be  for men, this one specifically for Domenican monks.  I wandered along some new streets , as per usual, but I am running out  and , as I get closer to my apartment,  I have to go past places I am quite familiar with.

Friday Fiesole

yesterday, Friday, I caught a bus, 30 minute, to Fiesole, a town  north of Florence.. It was founded by the Etruscans in the 9th century BC, then it became an important  Roman town. The large Roman amphitheatre date back to Ist C BCE.  Next to the amphitheatre were some baths and other Roman bits and piece. Their was an intesting museum. I walked back into Florence, stopping at some of the views, but it was overcast or  threatening rain or raining all day. It was not a particula pleasant walk , mainly because the road was quite narrow, and cars were very close when the passed me.   About 1/3 of the walk was quite pleasant, a country lane with high stone walls either side of the road but with occasional views of the large villas  in the grounds behind. The guide book described a particular small church down  a small road. I started walking and passed  a large newish building with a high barbed wire topped fence and a big sign telling visitors what to do. Non EU visitors  had quite a few extras. I went a bit further, then saw  a whole row of flagpoles. More new fences . I decided i did not need to see the church and retraced my steps.

On my way back to my apartment I chanced upon a good place to eat. Spaghetti with a huge amount of seafood. On the edges of the built up part of Florence, not the centre where I am staying. I had walked 14km ,,so i allowed myself a dessert.

Thursday.

After a slow start I walked down to my usual bar for my cappuccino and cornetto and, once again, greeted another regular couple who I see most days. I spent time this morning going through my notes and the guise book to see what else I particularly want to see. 

Lunch was in a place I have been meaning to try for ages. It is small and has always been fill when imhave walked past. So I got there at opening time. There were 5 tables of 4 or they could be split with no more than 1 inch between them for 2 lots of 2. So I was wedged in with mid 4o's man on my left and who I think was his father opposite him. The lady of the house could not get to me  without passing my plate through  my neighbours. They all appeared to be locals. Many diners knew other diners. It was very noisy. Choice of 3 primi s and 3 seconds.  Delicious food. Chestnuts through the soup.   At the end of the meal somehow i started to talk to my neighbours.  i have given up bothering and try and talk in italian but if french comes out, which if often does, too bad. I can usually get my message across.  They wanted to know how I got there and could not understand why I would want to go somewhere that took 4 planes to get to. (it could have been 3 if I went through the middle east )

I pottered in the afternoon and then went to my breakfast bar for an aperol spritz. As I went out I saw the couple that I see most mornings were there too, sitting in a different place to where they sit in the mornings. Small things make me smile.

Wednesday Santi Apostoli

I felt a bit pleased with myself for a short time today. On 2 occassions I was mistaken for Italian. It rained all night and was raining intermittently  all morning. First thing this morning  I was walking back to my apartment after my early morning  cornetto ( croissant not icecream) and coffee. I stopped at a pedestrian crossing as did a man with a dog. A car failed to stop for us ( not uncommon) and he turned and spoke to me in Italian. I hesitated, opened my mouth and spoke and he said in English  Sorry, I thought you were Italian. I was wearing my good ( well, it is almost 20 years old) thickish  gortex knee-length purple  all weather jacket. We chatted for a block . Later I was on my way to the oldest, supposedly, church in Firenze,  Santi Apostoli.  I think I rather rudely once a few weeks ago called a group of tourists on a tour swarming down the street like nasty insects. Well, when they all have their umbrellas up, there are more like wasps. Quite dangerous to the eyes if you are not protected with your own umbrella, even with your hood up. I was waiting to cross a street and an Italian gentleman started to talk to me in Italian. I understood and replied in Italian, but he again said he thought I was Italian. I was quite chuffed, pottered on and realised it was the knee length coat. Most local women had knee length coats on, the vast majority  , by far, of tourists have an umbrella and waist or hip length at most light weight rain jacket.  Ah well.

Santi Apostoli was built in the 11th century, but  there is evidence that it could have been earlier.   Apparently it is the only  Catholic church in Florence that has 1 service a week in English. It is quite a small church building but is apparently ( from the notice board  )  an active parish. I was the only visitor, but there were 8 people fiddling with the lighting in the church, checking some of the spots, changing the direction of some  of the lights. At any one time about half were doing nothing, while the others turned off and on some lights.  I was reminded of the " How many ... does it take to change a light globe" joke. The apparent boss of the group  was the only woman.  I read the details  in an  interesting  pamphlet about the church and I took my time looking at and reading about the paintings in the few side chapels.  That was it for the day. I wandered back along streets I had been along, stopped for another coffee ( actually , as usual late morning,  the coffee is the price I pay to use the loo) . I stopped in a park for a while and read my book. 

Monday and Tuesday

I am getting a bit tired and havenot done much over the past 2 days, but I am not unhappy.

On Monday I had a slow start and went to the main church in FLorence, the Duomo,  Santa Marie del Fiore to see how long the queue was.  I went to the head of the queue, the people I spoke to had been there  over 1 hour. The church opened while I was there and the queue did move quite smartly.  But they must limit people because I went past today at 12 ish and the door was shut and the queue, a similar length was stationary. No, it does not close routinely for lunch. 

Back to yesterday.  I have never used my debit card to pay  on a tram  ( i.e tap on a machine on the bus and the software works out how much to charge you.) or bus like a ticket.  Like you can do in many parts of Australia, even Canberra.  My debit card, ( which never has much on it, I top it up every few days) on my phone, is more accessible than my debit card in my pocket.  I got the tram to the airport to see if the process of not having an actual,paper ticket  would work.  When I checked, about 10 inutes  after I sat down it had debited my card with 1 euro which sat all day in pending , then this morning 2 euros ( the cost of the fare) had gone through and the 1 Euro was not there. So it worked. So that is one less thing to worry about Thursday week, when I go to Paris. 

Today I went went to the Medici Chapel  where some of the Medicis were buried in very elaborate tombs.

I have been reading some books , not high class literature, light holiday reading,  set in Florence. I was waiting for my lunch to come this afternoon  reading the current book ( an aside  -  the Italian word for a whodunit is giallo  which is also the word for yellow. There is a connection, but i cannot remember it ) Anyway,, I  read that the main character was walking down Borgo Pinti , (a street)  .  I was sitting at 56 Borgo Pinti which is a bit over 200m from my apartment. Borgo Pinti is not a main street. It is 1 way with very narrow footpaths, it is very hard to pass someone without stepping onto the road .   What are the chances of that?  I hope the book has a happy ending.

I also spend some time each afternoon reading a   book written by some Mayo clinic doctors about degenerative  brain issues.

Sunday, a day of rest

I pottered around my local area all day. When I went out for my second cup of coffee I almost bumped into a well dressed older lady ( in her 80's)  walking slowly, helping her wobbly-walking partner.  She said Buongiorno to me and I replied Buon Domenica ( I think I wrote about this last Sunday - an old fashioned greeting and parting, but old people seem to like it. ) She certainly  beamed  widely  at me, and very smartly said Grazie, grazie e  Buon Dominica a Lei .  So , I did the right thing. 

I bought a new pair of black travelling pants before this trip. My old ones didnot fit.  They , the new ones, are a good weight, look sort of OK, have lots of pockets, are sort of water repellent ( i could brush off half a cup of accidentally  spilt coffee), but, most importantly, dry overnight. So I wear them every day, I alternate 2 shirts, even though they both dry overnight. Absolutely  no thought or decision is required. 

Some thoughts and recommendations for future trips.

Do not assume bicycles on the road  comply with One- way direction signs

In the past you may have been good at looking at a map and thinking 3rd left into street A , then 2nd right into Street B. Donot  assume you still can,.

With reference to point above, if you think you are going the wrong way ( ie, there are less people in the street than you would have expected if you were correct in your directions and heading towards busier places) then stop and look at the map. Donot keep walking.

With reference to a point a few weeks ago about the increasing with age difficulty of managing fluid input and fluid output, it is very stupid to stubbornly think  " i'm not paying €1" and walk on. 

Remember, electric  cars make no noise!

If you do decide to have a glass of wine with a nice meal, and choose something you have not ever heard of and want to remember, write it down before the menu is taken away.

If you have ordered a glass of wine , particularly at lunch where you are probably a way from 'home', and you get a generous  amount of wine, you donot actually have to drink it all. 

In Florence many footpaths are narrow and the paving is very uneven. Passing people is hazardous. 

Many of the older buildings have windows on the ground floor . The sill is often about 5ft above the ground and sticks out over the crowded narrow footpath.. So not only do you have to have eyes looking towards the uneven footpath, you need to look out for head height concrete sills, and unexpected bicycles and unheard electric cars. This is at the same time as dodging all  the other people on the path.