A road trip to Florence
May 30th, 2015, 08:23 AM
#22
just found this, tij - what a great trip.
as another brit who loves driving on the continent I am enjoying it very much but having just spent a week driving around the Bordeaux area, I'm not sure about your opinion of european drivers - we saw some really shocking examples of terrible driving. Interestingly, bearing in mind what was said on a recent thread about "priorite a droite" they all involved a vehicle driving into the path of another vehicle from the right without stopping. None of them were entitled to do so - the offendee had right of way.
anyway, enough of my pet peeve [or one of them] - keep it coming.
as another brit who loves driving on the continent I am enjoying it very much but having just spent a week driving around the Bordeaux area, I'm not sure about your opinion of european drivers - we saw some really shocking examples of terrible driving. Interestingly, bearing in mind what was said on a recent thread about "priorite a droite" they all involved a vehicle driving into the path of another vehicle from the right without stopping. None of them were entitled to do so - the offendee had right of way.
anyway, enough of my pet peeve [or one of them] - keep it coming.
May 30th, 2015, 01:25 PM
#23
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lol Ann I do have an unusual view on driving in Europe - I loved negotiating the roundabout at the Arc de Triomphe and want to try it again. I'm much less comfortable driving in Germany and Austria. I think it is the comparative lack of traffic on so many roads in Europe that was so wonderful.
May 30th, 2015, 01:43 PM
#24
tij - most of the time [Spring half terms and the summer hols excluded] much of Cornwall is blessedly free of traffic too. Today I made it to Plymouth in less than 90 minutes - yes I know it was Saturday morning, but still.
I have vivid memories of the M25 in gridlock and other such nightmares so i know what you mean, but overall we found the traffic around Bordeaux no better than that in Cornwall, and in the area around Arcachon it was worse.
I have vivid memories of the M25 in gridlock and other such nightmares so i know what you mean, but overall we found the traffic around Bordeaux no better than that in Cornwall, and in the area around Arcachon it was worse.
May 31st, 2015, 12:25 AM
#25
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yes, wise words Ann, it would be very wrong if I or anyone else was to get the impression that Europe is a breeze when it comes to traffic - we were undoubtedly somewhat fortunate.
It would be great if there was a website that gave a general overall impression though of traffic jams and volumes - I guess that in this country we could certainly add the M25, sections of the M6, Cornwall in summer and Bath, to name just a few, to the list but also other areas such as the highlands of Scotland or Norfolk maybe where conditions are generally fine. All caveated of course.
It would be great if there was a website that gave a general overall impression though of traffic jams and volumes - I guess that in this country we could certainly add the M25, sections of the M6, Cornwall in summer and Bath, to name just a few, to the list but also other areas such as the highlands of Scotland or Norfolk maybe where conditions are generally fine. All caveated of course.
May 31st, 2015, 09:13 AM
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Day 6, Thursday 28 August - More Florence
It would have been rude not to have taken advantage of our rooftop terrace and so provisions were readily acquired from a little supermarket across the road for a lovely rooftop breakfast. The rest of the morning was spent food shopping and after that we went to the central market for lunch - this was an excellent choice - the whole upper floor has been converted to a vast dining area surrounded by dozens of stalls selling different food, all of which looked delicious. The hardest part was making a decision about which stall to pick. Markets like this are fabulous - and this was an excellent example of top quality refurbishment and fresh life being brought back into the old building. I'd definitely have this place on the itinery of every first time visitor to Florence.
We had the Uffizi booked for 15.00 and so Joshua entertained himself while we toured the most famous gallery in Florence.
The Uffizi was undeniably impressive but I have to say it wasn't as impressive as I'd been led to believe. Much of it's significance stems from the fact that it is one of the oldest and therefore most famous galleries in the world. It's vast as well and as so much is from the Renaissance it's fairly easy to be a little overwhelmed by it all. None of this means that it should be missed at all though. We were glad that we took the precaution of booking to avoid any queues whatsoever.
On our way back we visited San Lorenzo Church and Library, which is just round the corner from our apartment, we didn't visit the Medici Chapels though, which are at the same venue but have a different entrance and an additional fee, as time was pressing.
As we'd loved the fish restaurant we'd been to on our first night so much we took Josh there for dinner - another lovely meal.
And so that was the Florence part of our trip finished - it's a wonderful city and we only really scratched the surface but I felt that three nights was a great introduction and we covered some important ground - it is definitely a city to which I could return again and again - next time though not in August!
It would have been rude not to have taken advantage of our rooftop terrace and so provisions were readily acquired from a little supermarket across the road for a lovely rooftop breakfast. The rest of the morning was spent food shopping and after that we went to the central market for lunch - this was an excellent choice - the whole upper floor has been converted to a vast dining area surrounded by dozens of stalls selling different food, all of which looked delicious. The hardest part was making a decision about which stall to pick. Markets like this are fabulous - and this was an excellent example of top quality refurbishment and fresh life being brought back into the old building. I'd definitely have this place on the itinery of every first time visitor to Florence.
We had the Uffizi booked for 15.00 and so Joshua entertained himself while we toured the most famous gallery in Florence.
The Uffizi was undeniably impressive but I have to say it wasn't as impressive as I'd been led to believe. Much of it's significance stems from the fact that it is one of the oldest and therefore most famous galleries in the world. It's vast as well and as so much is from the Renaissance it's fairly easy to be a little overwhelmed by it all. None of this means that it should be missed at all though. We were glad that we took the precaution of booking to avoid any queues whatsoever.
On our way back we visited San Lorenzo Church and Library, which is just round the corner from our apartment, we didn't visit the Medici Chapels though, which are at the same venue but have a different entrance and an additional fee, as time was pressing.
As we'd loved the fish restaurant we'd been to on our first night so much we took Josh there for dinner - another lovely meal.
And so that was the Florence part of our trip finished - it's a wonderful city and we only really scratched the surface but I felt that three nights was a great introduction and we covered some important ground - it is definitely a city to which I could return again and again - next time though not in August!
Jun 3rd, 2015, 02:00 PM
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Day 7, Friday 29 August - Modena
After another rooftop terrace breakfast we packed up, got the car from the garage and shlepped everything three floors downstairs and along the street to the car.
Ahead of us was our shortest day's drive of the trip, just 90 miles, which allowed us to take it easy and avoid the motorways and also gave us a few hours to stroll round the historic centre of Modena once we'd checked in at our lovely little hotel - Cervetta 5, which was located within the old town. Their only triple room was £122 - a bargain.
The reason we were in Modena was a restaurant - Osteria Francescana, and our whole trip had been planned round it - we'd had to put our trip back a week as they were closed. It's rated one of the very best in the world, just this week its gone up to #2 in the world according to the annual San Pellegrino survey of the world's best restaurants, http://www.theworlds50best.com/ and was the place to properly celebrate 20 years!
Even though our table was booked for 20.00 we were amongst the first to arrive as we found the chef, Massimo Bottura, kicking a football in the side street next to the restaurant with a few of his staff. We thought this was the entrance and walked up and he very kindly and charmingly walked us round to the correct entrance, knocked on the door and intruduced us to the front of house person - a lovely way to start a truly memorable evening. The food was some of the very best we've ever had - Josh thought that the parmesan dish, where 5 different ages of parmesan are used in five very different ways, was the best single course of food he'd ever had. I can still picture it and recall the taste. The whole evening was excellent if a little too formal and the only huge shame was that we'd not taken cash and they werent able to add a tip on to my credit card - I'm still feeling a little guilty about this. Possibly enough guilt to warrant a return trip. An added bonus was that it cost two thirds that of our meal in Florence.
Yet again we took a long route back to the hotel through the quiet streets - walking historic cities late at night like this when tourists have gone but you still feel perfectly safe is one of my favourite things to do.
After another rooftop terrace breakfast we packed up, got the car from the garage and shlepped everything three floors downstairs and along the street to the car.
Ahead of us was our shortest day's drive of the trip, just 90 miles, which allowed us to take it easy and avoid the motorways and also gave us a few hours to stroll round the historic centre of Modena once we'd checked in at our lovely little hotel - Cervetta 5, which was located within the old town. Their only triple room was £122 - a bargain.
The reason we were in Modena was a restaurant - Osteria Francescana, and our whole trip had been planned round it - we'd had to put our trip back a week as they were closed. It's rated one of the very best in the world, just this week its gone up to #2 in the world according to the annual San Pellegrino survey of the world's best restaurants, http://www.theworlds50best.com/ and was the place to properly celebrate 20 years!
Even though our table was booked for 20.00 we were amongst the first to arrive as we found the chef, Massimo Bottura, kicking a football in the side street next to the restaurant with a few of his staff. We thought this was the entrance and walked up and he very kindly and charmingly walked us round to the correct entrance, knocked on the door and intruduced us to the front of house person - a lovely way to start a truly memorable evening. The food was some of the very best we've ever had - Josh thought that the parmesan dish, where 5 different ages of parmesan are used in five very different ways, was the best single course of food he'd ever had. I can still picture it and recall the taste. The whole evening was excellent if a little too formal and the only huge shame was that we'd not taken cash and they werent able to add a tip on to my credit card - I'm still feeling a little guilty about this. Possibly enough guilt to warrant a return trip. An added bonus was that it cost two thirds that of our meal in Florence.
Yet again we took a long route back to the hotel through the quiet streets - walking historic cities late at night like this when tourists have gone but you still feel perfectly safe is one of my favourite things to do.
Jun 3rd, 2015, 02:37 PM
#29
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What a lovely treat to have your son join you. That parmesan dish sounds amazing.
I am frequently overwhelmed by large art galleries and museums - which is why I use a "cheat sheet" to take me to the things I don't want to miss and browse more if I'm not too tired. If only one had the time and opportunity to return many times . . .
I am frequently overwhelmed by large art galleries and museums - which is why I use a "cheat sheet" to take me to the things I don't want to miss and browse more if I'm not too tired. If only one had the time and opportunity to return many times . . .
Jun 5th, 2015, 10:03 AM
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Day 8, Saturday 30 August - Lake Maggiore and More Mountains
As usual we headed out to find the nearest decent cafe for breakfast and the benefit of the hotel being close to the historic centre meant we found one very easily - lovely just watching and listening to people.
Our destination for the day was up in the mountains in Switzerland again and according to aa routeplanner this was going to take just short of 5 hours given that we were avoiding motorways for a portion of the trip. The decision to take the longer route wasn't a huge success as the wonderful views of the lovely Lake Maggiore that we thought we would get were more often than not obscured by trees.
Our route though did allow us a stop at Stresa, on the west bank of the lake, and a boat out to Isola Bella, which used to be a lump of rock but which in the 17th century was transformed into the most ornate gardens with a huge palace. We had a very mediocre lunch in Stresa before we got our boat to the island but our stop was excellent, the gardens were gorgeous, and a perfect way to break our journey.
From there we took the quickest roads to Binn, which turned out to involve putting our car on to an open train at Iselle avoiding the Simplon Pass. As we'd already taken one very long drive over the Alps we were very happy to do something different and we were lucky with timings so that we didn't have to wait long before we set off on the short 20 minutes journey to Brig through the Simplon tunnel. This tunnel was built in 1906 and for many years was the longest railway tunnel in the world. While the Simplon Pass would have been lovely, amazingly it was used as early as the stone age, it would have taken too much out of our day and the twists and turns would have been no fun for anyone sitting in the back seat of the car.
Binn is a lovely little village (population 155) high up in the Swiss Alps. We were staying at the main hotel in the village, the Ofenhorn, which is a listed building, built over 125 years ago and were glad we arrived with enough time and daylight for a short walk after showering. Cleverly the en suites are simple glass insertions into the corner of the old rooms. Understandably dining options are limited and so we ate in the hotel, which was perfectly acceptable. And after dinner we took our usual walk round the village. No photos sadly but this shows how cute the village is https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=bi...0CCgQsAQ&dpr=1
The setting was absolutely magical but sadly our time here was limited as on Sunday we had our longest drive of the whole trip scheduled - 582 miles and 9 hours 35 minutes - to a village close to Amiens. It was lovely though to be staying somewhere so very different than usual and so very different to our time in Italy.
As usual we headed out to find the nearest decent cafe for breakfast and the benefit of the hotel being close to the historic centre meant we found one very easily - lovely just watching and listening to people.
Our destination for the day was up in the mountains in Switzerland again and according to aa routeplanner this was going to take just short of 5 hours given that we were avoiding motorways for a portion of the trip. The decision to take the longer route wasn't a huge success as the wonderful views of the lovely Lake Maggiore that we thought we would get were more often than not obscured by trees.
Our route though did allow us a stop at Stresa, on the west bank of the lake, and a boat out to Isola Bella, which used to be a lump of rock but which in the 17th century was transformed into the most ornate gardens with a huge palace. We had a very mediocre lunch in Stresa before we got our boat to the island but our stop was excellent, the gardens were gorgeous, and a perfect way to break our journey.
From there we took the quickest roads to Binn, which turned out to involve putting our car on to an open train at Iselle avoiding the Simplon Pass. As we'd already taken one very long drive over the Alps we were very happy to do something different and we were lucky with timings so that we didn't have to wait long before we set off on the short 20 minutes journey to Brig through the Simplon tunnel. This tunnel was built in 1906 and for many years was the longest railway tunnel in the world. While the Simplon Pass would have been lovely, amazingly it was used as early as the stone age, it would have taken too much out of our day and the twists and turns would have been no fun for anyone sitting in the back seat of the car.
Binn is a lovely little village (population 155) high up in the Swiss Alps. We were staying at the main hotel in the village, the Ofenhorn, which is a listed building, built over 125 years ago and were glad we arrived with enough time and daylight for a short walk after showering. Cleverly the en suites are simple glass insertions into the corner of the old rooms. Understandably dining options are limited and so we ate in the hotel, which was perfectly acceptable. And after dinner we took our usual walk round the village. No photos sadly but this shows how cute the village is https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=bi...0CCgQsAQ&dpr=1
The setting was absolutely magical but sadly our time here was limited as on Sunday we had our longest drive of the whole trip scheduled - 582 miles and 9 hours 35 minutes - to a village close to Amiens. It was lovely though to be staying somewhere so very different than usual and so very different to our time in Italy.
Jun 6th, 2015, 08:30 AM
#32
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Day 9, Sunday 31 August - Roads and more roads
There's not a lot to say about this day as it was pretty much taken up by driving on the fastest roads available from high up in the Swiss Alps to close to the northern coast of France. The one good thing was that it allowed a stop for lunch at the excellent motorway service stations that seem to be the norm in Europe as opposed to this country where they are very much the exception - the wonderful Tebay services on the M6 is almost a day trip in its own right.
What it did illustrate though was how much duller it is driving on the fastest roads albeit that unlike the UK we encountered just one very small delay during the whole day - roads in Europe are wonderfully free of too much traffic. Very glad that this was the only day that was dominated by travel. But we shared the driving and Josh kept us entertained with podcasts.
One such day though was entirely worth it and we got to our destination, the tiny Clos-de-la-Prairie hotel, in good time, good mood and not that tired. This is pretty converted farmhouse set in the middle of nowhere and it was lovely to sit out overlooking fields after such a long days drive knowing that dinner was just a two minute walk away. The husband of the couple running the place is a chef and dinner was excellent - spoilt only by an argument with Josh about politics - I guess with so many days in close confinement it was too much to hope for complete harmony!
There's not a lot to say about this day as it was pretty much taken up by driving on the fastest roads available from high up in the Swiss Alps to close to the northern coast of France. The one good thing was that it allowed a stop for lunch at the excellent motorway service stations that seem to be the norm in Europe as opposed to this country where they are very much the exception - the wonderful Tebay services on the M6 is almost a day trip in its own right.
What it did illustrate though was how much duller it is driving on the fastest roads albeit that unlike the UK we encountered just one very small delay during the whole day - roads in Europe are wonderfully free of too much traffic. Very glad that this was the only day that was dominated by travel. But we shared the driving and Josh kept us entertained with podcasts.
One such day though was entirely worth it and we got to our destination, the tiny Clos-de-la-Prairie hotel, in good time, good mood and not that tired. This is pretty converted farmhouse set in the middle of nowhere and it was lovely to sit out overlooking fields after such a long days drive knowing that dinner was just a two minute walk away. The husband of the couple running the place is a chef and dinner was excellent - spoilt only by an argument with Josh about politics - I guess with so many days in close confinement it was too much to hope for complete harmony!
Jun 8th, 2015, 12:18 AM
#33
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Day 10, Monday 1 September - Shopping
The reason we had slogged so hard in the car yesterday was that today was another shopping day.
Our carefully planned route allowed a Carrefour supermarket shop where we stocked up on more wine, champagne and other goodies, followed by a drive along one of the prettiest drives in northern France. While it was certainly nice enough the north of France is obviously not the best place for pretty drives. Our next destination was one of the best cheese shops in France in Boulogne but tragically it was closed on Monday mornings - not something I had picked up from their website. We stood forlornly on the street able to smell the wonderful produce inside.
We had time to take the coast road from Boulogne to Calais which felt like a good way to finish our time in Europe, although we had no time to stop for a closer look.
The journey through the tunnel was smooth and event free but typically there were huge traffic jams once we arrived in Britain.
So on reflection another excellent trip illustrating the value of detailed planning. Airbnb is a fantastic resource and we plan to use it more and more where possible. Would I have done things differently? No, we only wanted to take 5 days leave and this worked perfectly. Italy is a fairly big blank for us and Florence will certainly be somewhere we will be coming back to. Ghent was a revelation and I feel a week in Belgium trip coming on in the next few years. Likewise Switzerland was utterly charming and we'd love to be able to spend more time there.
Time though. Well, time and money. Both are limited and as I write our Japan trip is postponed due to my osteoarthritis and new replacement hip - my doctor was generous enough to say it must have been a sporting injury when I was young. So in the weeks I've been home not only have I finished this overdue trip report but meticulously planned our two week trip to Ireland - DP now works there so it feels entirely appropriate to get to know the country more and therefore it's another road trip for August 2015.
The reason we had slogged so hard in the car yesterday was that today was another shopping day.
Our carefully planned route allowed a Carrefour supermarket shop where we stocked up on more wine, champagne and other goodies, followed by a drive along one of the prettiest drives in northern France. While it was certainly nice enough the north of France is obviously not the best place for pretty drives. Our next destination was one of the best cheese shops in France in Boulogne but tragically it was closed on Monday mornings - not something I had picked up from their website. We stood forlornly on the street able to smell the wonderful produce inside.
We had time to take the coast road from Boulogne to Calais which felt like a good way to finish our time in Europe, although we had no time to stop for a closer look.
The journey through the tunnel was smooth and event free but typically there were huge traffic jams once we arrived in Britain.
So on reflection another excellent trip illustrating the value of detailed planning. Airbnb is a fantastic resource and we plan to use it more and more where possible. Would I have done things differently? No, we only wanted to take 5 days leave and this worked perfectly. Italy is a fairly big blank for us and Florence will certainly be somewhere we will be coming back to. Ghent was a revelation and I feel a week in Belgium trip coming on in the next few years. Likewise Switzerland was utterly charming and we'd love to be able to spend more time there.
Time though. Well, time and money. Both are limited and as I write our Japan trip is postponed due to my osteoarthritis and new replacement hip - my doctor was generous enough to say it must have been a sporting injury when I was young. So in the weeks I've been home not only have I finished this overdue trip report but meticulously planned our two week trip to Ireland - DP now works there so it feels entirely appropriate to get to know the country more and therefore it's another road trip for August 2015.
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