Tag Archives: Cityscape

Ready, Aim, Firenze!

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Tuesday 6 May 2025 – And so the adventure begins!

As is normal with us, we can tell that we’re travelling because we have to get up at an obscure hour of the day. In today’s case, it was an 0500 alarm in order to catch a flight to Florence, so that we could have a few days’ kulcher in advance of starting the long walk to Rome, which peregrination is the main reason for being in The Foreign.

We had treated ourselves to a night in the Sofitel by Heathrow Terminal 5 to mitigate the early start by as much as possible. Upon reflection, we could quite easily have simply started from home on the same schedule, but never mind; it started to get us into the rhythm of living out of suitcase, as we will be doing for the next month.

Courtesy of last year’s extravagant travel schedule, I find myself at the Silver level in BA’s club, which gave us priority check-in and access to the club lounge and an opportunity to snarf some free fruit and yoghurt rather than paying £28 per head for the same service at the Softel. Lots has been written about BA’s service, much of it uncomplimentary, but in their defence I have to point out that Marmite is available in their lounge; a lot may thus be forgiven. And actually everything went pretty smoothly on the flight, despite the fact that the aeroplane was parked up at Terminal 3, which necessitated a bus journey long enough to make us wonder whether the driver actually knew the way. But she found us a plane and we piled on board, Jane by the window and me on a middle seat.

Which was OK until it became clear that the aisle seat next to me had been reserved by a very overweight person, who I felt should either have paid for two seats, or possibly reimbursed me the proportion of my space that she occupied. I dealt with this is the only way a British chap can; by saying nothing and pretending not to be aggrieved whilst hoping that my seething indignation somehow conveyed itself to my right.

And I was unable to finish the Super Fiendish Sudoku! Still, it was nice to see the tips of the Alps poking through the clouds as we flew over them.

Our luggage arrived into the baggage hall very shortly after we did, which was nice, and there was a very affable chap awaiting us to whisk us to our hotel in Florence, the Hotel Camilla. At reception, we were greeted by the very affable and capable Jessica, but only after we’d puffed our way up two storeys of really quite chunky steps. Also, it’s a listed building, so no lift is ever going to be possible. The room we have is perfectly nice, has a decent view out of the window,

and, importantly, a kettle, which held the prospect of combining nicely with the bags of Twining’s finest Earl Grey we’d brought with us. But first, we had A Mission with some important objectives: lunch; a pharmacy to buy the sunscreen we’d forgotten to pack; and some kind of bag to carry stuff around when sightseeing. We haven’t travelled since October, and we’re a bit out of practice, it would seem.

Jessica recommended a pharmacy and a fruitful area for lunch prospecting and so off we set, into the narrow, crowded streets of Florence.

The hotel’s location is pretty good – well done to WalkThe Camino.com for its choice. We are very near many of the major sights of Florence, such as the humble San Lorenzo Basilica

built when Florence  took a dose of its own Medici. It’s actually larger than the cathedral, which was built by the Medicis from their own money, so I suppose they deserved this cute little chapel. We popped inside to take a look.

Without being overwheming it’s quite spectactular, with a marvellous ceiling,

some major artworks,

St. Lawrence being griddled

The Annunciation

some major carvery by Donatello,

Originally a pulpit – careful examination reveals a door

and a lovely cloister courtyard

featuring some very eye-catching statuary.

Further works by the sculptor, Andrea Roggi, are outside the Basilica, but many were draped in unattractive punters, and so were photographically unrewarding. This one – Tree of Life – is very impressive.

Next stop was for some lunch, taken pleasantly al fresco outside Trattoria Antellesi, to fortify ourselves for some more wandering about. For it is given that when Jane and Steve visit a place, they go for a walk. Obviously.

Jane suggested a route which led past the astonishingly large central market, which is both outdoor (hugely redolent of Italian leather)

and indoors.

Our path then took us to the Duomo, the main cathedral of Florence. Having only seen this photo

and not really appreciated any of the detail in it, I was unprepared for the impact it had on me. It is simply staggering.

The colour, the detail, the scope – amazing.

and it really annoys me that people, faced with such majestic beauty, want nothing more than to interpose themselves as foreground interest.

Walking round it reveals that the brightness and colour has been the result of some considerable work; other areas are awaiting attention

but will, I’m sure, display the signature white and green colours in due course. One can see some progress has been made elsewhere.

Another obvious Thing To Do in Florence is to visit the Ponte Vecchio, so we headed off in that direction, past various slabs of Florentine masonry,

eventually arriving at the crowded bridge

before finding our way along the river so that we could look back at it to appreciate it better.

Others, of course, were less taken with the view.

We passed a couple of interesting sights. This rendering of the Mona Lisa

was worth a closer look.

and we caught a glimpse of the Bacchus Fountain in the Pitti Palace

 

as I searched for a possible place for launching a drone for an aerial shot. I think I’m going to be unlucky in that; drones are, unsurprisingly, not allowed in the city, but I remain hopeful that I can find somewhere legit to launch for a quick photo.

There were, unsurprisingly, many artistic touches to be seen across our short walk, including coats of arms on the sides of buildings, such as this one of the Medici family,

and a couple of statues as enigmatic as they were large.

No, it’s not clear what these figures represent. That’s Art for you, innit?

We returned to the hotel to find that the sainted Jessica had provided some milk, which meant that we could induge in a restorative cup or two of Twinings finest Earl Grey.

We have a proper formal guided tour to look forward to tomorrow, so that we may learn a little more of the history and culture of this remarkable city, and so that I might be able to make better informed comment about what we’ve seen. Do please come back to find out if this actually is the case, won’t you?

 

Paddington, Barely

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Wednesday 25 & Thursday 26 September 2024 – Our departure from Belrose was also a departure from my habit of taking a taxi to the airport.  Lorraine and Paul warned us against trying to convince a taxi company reliably to send someone into the northern wilds of the Sydney suburbs, so we took our first-ever Uber. We had a very pleasant drive with, at the wheel, a lady who was a Brisbane native and who was therefore able to give us a few thoughts about Things To Do In Brisbane. The traffic was a little heavy, and the journey to the airport took about an hour, but we arrived on schedule, with plenty of time before our flight’s departure; and in a thankfully undramatic departure from their established norm, Virgin Australia got us from Sydney to Brisbane without any form of buggering us about. My friend Phil was waiting there to take us to his place, which is in Red Hill, the area of Brisbane next to one called Paddington.

I’ve talked before about connections; thus far it has only been about those formed with fellow travellers.  The one between Phil and me is a lot deeper; we have been friends since babyhood. His family emigrated to Australia in 1967 as “ten pound Poms” (a phrase our Uber driver was so young that she’d never heard it, by the way), but Phil and I stayed in contact by letter over the years and met occasionally, as time, location, circumstances and finances dictated. Right from the first time we met again, which was in 1974, it was clear that the friendship had survived; that encounter, and every one since, has been a source of great pleasure.

Phil has a lovely house, which was originally a Queensland workman’s cottage and which, in true Australian fashion, was transported in one piece to its current location. It’s “upside down”, meaning the bedrooms are on the ground floor and the living space upstairs, and this makes great sense, given the usually hot Queensland climate; the downstairs rooms are the cooler ones, and it leaves a grand upstairs deck. Rather magnificently, the deck has a tree growing through it,

which provides shade for those sitting out on the deck with a glass of something cold, which was us, quite a lot of the time.

The Red Hill/Paddington area is an interesting one to walk around and so, for the first couple of days, and, with Phil and his insightful commentary, that’s what we did. Obviously.

The Queensland workman’s cottage vibe is something that is evident over the whole area that we strolled around.

Most of them are well-maintained and in very good nick and some

have been quite considerably extended.

There’s a variety of approaches to decor, from nice paint jobs and interesting roof tiles

to more elaborate flourishes on the larger buildings.

As well as the timber cottages, there are more substantial constructions

and some nice use of street art on the outside of some.

This, for example, is the local cinema

and it’s not just the front of the building that’s been decorated.

If you look at the left hand picture above, you can see that the area is not necessarily flat and level.  The gradients of some of the hills are simply breathtaking,

so walking about is akin to a major workout at times,

but the area’s location does mean that you get some superb views over downtown Brisbane.

So steep that handrails are needed to help you walk up it!

Among the many coffee bars and restaurants there are some interesting shops

Short Bach and sides?

and other little artistic touches.

The trees lining the roads make the streets very attractive,

and there’s one majestic specimen which is at the top of a hill

making one (OK, me) grateful for the shady seats in which to take a breather – and watch the laughing kookaburras which had come to laugh at us.

In the centre of Paddington there’s a building which used to be a theatre

now repurposed to house a huge variety of stalls selling antiques, bric-a-brac and a whole variety of other things.

Some angles give away the theatrical origins of the building – you can see the proscenium arch here.

Some wag in the local authority had had the idea to make a “Kooka Trail” around the area, presumably intended as a distraction for kids, but also valuable for the entertainment of passing photographers.

though I prefer the real thing, which we saw in various places, including near Phil’s house.

Apparently, kookaburras have been absent in recent years, and they’re only now making a reappearance. I like them, so was glad to be able to see (and hear!) them.

After two days and 11km of walking around this delightful part of the city, it was a pleasure to be able to sit on Phil’s deck with a glass of something cold as the sun went down

This describes our first couple of days in Queensland. We had two more days before heading even further North! and I’ll tell you all about it – some other time.

 

Interjection – completing the Melbourne staff work

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Wednesday 4 September 2024 – For subscribers, or those reading through these pages sequentially, this entry will likely cause some confusion and I apologise for that. This page is about our last full day in Melbourne, which I accidentally forgot to write about at the time, possibly in the excitement of discovering the unusual way that Virgin Australia was buggering us about in regard to our forthcoming flight to Tasmania.

One of the great things about our time in Melbourne was – like our plans for Sydney and Brisbane – a chance to catch up with friends whom we hadn’t met for many years. The centre piece of today was A Nice Lunch with Sharon and David, a couple we had met on a walking holiday in Slovenia back in 2016; we had shared a house with them, walks up hill and down dale with them (lots of that in the Julian Alps in Slovenia!) and many laughs over lunch and dinner. We knew they lived in the Melbourne environs and so were delighted that they were prepared to do the slog into the city to share a lunch with us.

The venue was the Flower Drum, in Melbourne’s Chinatown, and a decent walk for us from the hotel. The walk gave us an opportunity to seek out some more of the various bits of street art that can be found in the city streets. On the way, we passed this sign

which might be said to sum up Australia – but only in a lovingly joking manner, you understand.

We revisited Hosier Street

and discovered (as reported earlier) that the painted-over artwork was still surprisingly unredecorated.

There was some grand statuary outside the Grand Hyatt hotel

and we passed the very attractive St. Michael’s Uniting Church.

Jane had discovered other corners to look for murals.

For lunch, we headed into Chinatown

and had a delightful couple of hours with Sharon and David, catching up on the intervening years since we last met. On holiday While travelling, one meets many people, but it’s rare to form a lasting connection with fellow travellers, and it was lovely to find that this connection was still strong.

After lunch we needed to go for a walk. Obviously.  We passed Parliament House

and found many more decorated buildings to gawp and attempt to photograph.

There was some great decor to be admired

and – possibly – a genuine Banksy!

This was alongside some other stencilled-type artwork.

On the way back to the hotel, I managed to get a reasonable photo of St. Paul’s Cathedral,

some nice mosaic artwork by Flinders Street Station

(sadly, the chap wasn’t about to leave; I think he was a bouncer) and some more building decoration on the way back to our apartment.

So ended our last full day in Melbourne, and a very pleasant one it was, too. The plans for the morrow were simply to get to Hobart in Tasmania, which we achieved, but not without, as I’d mentioned earlier, a frisson of frustration courtesy of the Virgin Australia ticketing system. To read all about that, the narrative continues here. Meanwhile, I’ll get back to our time in Brisbane, if that’s all right with you.  Sorry for the interruption of the otherwise smooth flow.