Florence and Pisa

ACCOMMODATIONS

Francia e Quirinale at Montecatini. Montecatini Terme is a spa town.

Montecatini is 50 minutes by train from Florence (map). Trains every half hour. $28 US for two 2nd class tickets. Train station (map). This car service can take 1-4 people from the Florence Train Station to Montecatini for E70. The Consortium Taxi Montecatini Terme, Largo Vivaldi, 11 - 51010 Massa e Cozzile(PT); Cell. +39 334 3360302; +39 339 2442483.

Might could also pick up a taxi in Florence. I sent an email 5/6 to the hotel asking for info about how to get there from Florence.

May temperatures range from 52 to 74, with about 3 inches of rain.

GLOBUS ITINERARY

Tuesday May 27, Rome to Florence to Tuscany...An easy morning drive back north to Florence. Follow your Local Guide to visit the the ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS with Michelangelo’s celebrated David, the magnificent CATHEDRAL, Giotto’s Bell Tower, the Baptistry’s heavy bronze “Gate of Paradise,” and SIGNORIA SQUARE. Later, take a moment to check out the enticing shops with Florentine leather goods and gold jewelry. (BB,D)

3 hours from Rome to Florence.

Wednesday May 28, Tuscany to Pisa to Nice, France....Focus on Pisa this morning for pictures of its amazing Leaning Tower. Then follow the Mediterranean coast past a string of Italian and French Riviera resorts to Nice. An optional outing is available to Monte Carlo.(BB)

45 minutes from Montecatini to Pisa and 4 hours from Pisa to Nice.

Optional Tours

None in Florence or Pisa.

ITINERARY

On Tuesday and Wednesday, we will go with Globus to see:

Accademia Gallery. This is a small gallery with the David.

Cathedral. Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore. The Duomo. It is notable for its dome designed by Brunelleschi, its exterior facing of marble panels in various shades of green and pink bordered by white.

Giotto's Bell Tower is next to the Duomo. The Battistero di San Giovanni, with its famous doors, is in the same location.

Piazza della Signora, a plaza near the Uffizi.

Tower of Pisa. The city's Piazza dei Miracoli (Square of Miracles) houses the Duomo (the Cathedral), the Baptistry, the Tower, and the Camposanto (the monumental cemetery).

On Tuesday, we might go by ourselves:

A page with various museums.

Uffizi Gallery. Open until 18.50. €6.50. The Uffizi is one of the most famous museums of paintings and sculpture in the world. Its collection of Primitive and Renaissance paintings comprises several universally acclaimed masterpieces of all time, including works by Giotto, Simone Martini, Piero della Francesca, Fra Angelico, Filippo Lippi, Botticelli, Mantegna, Correggio, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo and Caravaggio. German, Dutch and Flemish masters are also well represented with important works by Dürer, Rembrandt and Rubens. Tel: 055 294883, Booking charge: € 4,00.

The Uffizi is near the river, near the Ponte Vecchio, a pedestrian bridge over the Arno River. The museum's entrance is right off the Piazza della Signora.

Museum of the Medici Chapels. Address: Piazza Madonna degli Aldobrandini, 6. The Museum is incorporated in the vast complex of the basilica of San Lorenzo which, being the parish church of the Medici family, was particularly richly decorated. It is here that members of the family were buried from the mid-15th century onwards. The Museum is especially famous for the New Sacristy which Michelangelo designed for the tombs of Lorenzo and Giuliano de' Medici, creating one of the masterpieces of architecture and sculpture of the Italian Renaissance. The Chapel of the Princes was begun in the early 17th century to become the mausoleum of the Medici grand-dukes. This grandiose octagonal chapel, with its immense dome, is entirely faced with polychrome marble and pietre dure.

There are audiotours. I ordered 2 tickets for 1pm through the official ticket site on 5/6. Reference # is 938489399. The site said I would receive confirmation of payment along with my voucher by e-mail in two working days. Come to the ticket office with your voucher and some identification no more than 15 minutes prior to the time of entry.

Santa Maria Novella is just across from the main railway station, which shares its name. Chronologically, it is the first great basilica in Florence. (more info.) In its pharmacy, the monks run a perfumerie.

The church of Santa Trinita is famous for its Sassetti Chapel, containing notable frescoes by Domenico Ghirlandaio. It is located near the river, near the 1st bridge to the NW of the Ponte Vecchio.

Official site for buying on-line tickets for various museums. The official site is out of tickets for the Uffizi. Another site. (which on 5/9 had 24 tickets for 2:45) Another site. Another site.

A Florence Art Guide.

Transportation in Florence

City bus services (orange buses) are run by ATAF and LI-NEA. Ordinary and season tickets can be purchased from authorized sales points (bars, tobacconists, newsagents’) and from the ATAF booth in Piazza Stazione. Tickets must be validated in the machines on the bus. Tickets (validity 70 minutes) may be purchased directly from the driver for € 2,00 (no change given).

Information: ‘ProntoAtaf’ tel 800 424500 (free call - from in Italy only) - http://www.ataf.net/ ATAF booth - Piazza Stazione (under the bus shelter)

Look for the "Florence Sightseeing bus", a red London-style double-decker bus that travels the streets of Florence just for tourists.

ATAF Bus route maps.