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Zee Michaelson Travel
Celtic Tours Day 6 In Italy with Diana
Welcome to the Z Michelson Travel Podcast, where every journey is a story waiting to be told. I'm your host, z Michelson, and I'm so excited to take you on a ride through the world's most incredible destinations, hidden gems and unforgettable experiences. Whether you're a seasoned traveler or just starting to plan your next getaway, you're in the right place. Each episode, we'll be diving into everything from must-see landmarks to off-the-beaten-path treasures, speaking with locals and travel experts and sharing stories that will inspire your next adventure. So sit back, relax and let's wander the world together, one destination at a time. Are you ready? Let's get started. Hey, again it's.
Speaker 2:Zee Michelson and I am with Diana of Celtic Tours and we are talking Italy. We are talking day six of her Italian adventure. So, diana, welcome and tell me where we're going today.
Speaker 3:Daisy. Oh my gosh, today is an amazing day. It's a full day of Florence, whoa a full day of Florence. Yes, yes, oh, my goodness, what a wonderful day. Of course, we start off with breakfast in the morning. Everybody goes downstairs and has a great little breakfast, again included in everybody's package, and it's Vela Casa Grande, vela, casa Grande.
Speaker 2:That's where we're staying Now. When you went to Florence, are you taking the bus in or the train now?
Speaker 3:No, we actually took a motor coach, but can you take the train? Yes, yes, okay, the train station is about a 10 walk, five minutes to walk fast, okay, that's nice, and you can actually take the train into almost anywhere, anywhere in within italy, especially the tuscan region, very nice. So we did have the motor coach that way.
Speaker 1:Okay, and the train to take the train it, so we did have the motor coach, that way, okay.
Speaker 3:And the train to take the train, it's only like six and a half euros, that's not very much at all. That's one way, yeah, and the train station in Florence will drop you right in the middle of Florence, so very, very easy to walk to, because I did take the train one day one evening and went into Florence for an evening Right. I remember that Right One evening.
Speaker 2:And went into Florence for an evening. Right, I remember that we were talking about that. So now this is an actual tour that Celtic Tours provided to their guests that were staying at the Villa Sassagrande, and it was the day of Florence.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, so tell me. So the motor coach comes, we all jump on the motor coach. It's probably about a 45 minute, maybe an hour to get to.
Speaker 3:Florence about a 45 minute, maybe an hour, to get to Florence. That's not bad. No, because it's a motor coach. Dents tend to go a little bit slower than a regular car. If you take the train, if you decide to take the train, you can take the one-way train that doesn't stop along the way and that'll only take you about 30, 35 minutes. So it's almost like an express. Exactly, yeah, they have several different trains. They have a train that'll stop along the way that takes a little bit longer, and then they have an express that takes you directly to Florence and it's only about $30, $35.
Speaker 2:Okay. So now everybody had their breakfast. They piled onto the motor coach. And again, the motor coach is air conditioned. They are air conditioned.
Speaker 3:Yes, very, very comfortable. Yes, very, very comfortable. Yep, I wouldn't say that Wi-Fi is readily available, because in Italy there's so many hills, so the Wi-Fi is very, very choppy.
Speaker 2:So, be aware that you may not have your Wi-Fi, but you still can take pictures and then send the pictures later when you get back to the villa.
Speaker 3:Yeah, for sure. Yeah, so we met our guide and our guide went ahead and started walking us, walking us through the town of Florence, the city of Florence. It's not a town, it's a city and we stopped. Our first stop was the majestic Domo di Florencia which is actually formerly known as the Cathedral of St Mary of Flower.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, and that's not what you just said in Italian.
Speaker 3:No, but it was formerly known as that, so they renamed it, which is the Dome of Florence.
Speaker 2:The Dome of Florence. Yes, the Dome of Florence. So that must be a site.
Speaker 3:When you get there, you see that that's like a site to see it is so beautiful and it's right in the piazza Okay, this little piazza and the dome itself was built in 1296. Wow, it was also built with the Giotto Bell Tower and the baptismal which is right next to it, all done in marble. And it is amazing because I saw it in the evening time, when I went to Florence in the evening and to see it in the evening and then to see it that morning. Completely different colors. They have pastel colors and like a light green.
Speaker 3:This was during the day. This was during the day that I didn't notice at night. At night, you didn't notice all of those colors because the lighting is so different.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's marble, and when the sun shines on the marble it brings out those colors.
Speaker 3:Very nice, yeah, it was really just beautiful, and the baptismal actually has the gates of paradise. Yeah, I didn't know that, but yeah, gates of paradise. We didn't go into anything. We didn't go into the cathedral because we were doing a walking tour, okay, so we didn't have time to do that. But if that's something that you wanted to do, we did have some free time in the afternoon, so you can do that if you'd like, and Celtic tours can set that up too as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, which is nice.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely yeah, we can, and we can set up almost anything, almost anything, right For anybody. Yeah, so after the walking through the dome and everything is kind of Gothic style. Okay, one particular area it's very Gothic style, which is different because Florence is known for its Renaissance era. Yes, you know Renaissance time, which I'll talk about in just a couple of minutes. So of course, all three of those are also part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site in Florence.
Speaker 2:So now you're walking around and you're seeing the Dome of Florence, you're seeing the bell tower, you're seeing the baptismal area. You're not really going into it, but you're kind of seeing it. You're kind of taking it in.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we're walking around. We're looking at the masonry, we're looking at the construction. She's talking about the history of it, telling us more about it. I can't even remember half of the history of all of this, but I did remember when it was made and the marble and, of course, looking at it, you know, with the different colors.
Speaker 1:But it's definitely a must-see, does it?
Speaker 3:look like marble. You know from afar it doesn't, but when you get up on it it does.
Speaker 2:It does.
Speaker 3:So it's just again a must-see when you're in Florida A must-see. So after we were walking around the streets and we're doing our tour, and then we went to the Piazza della Signoria, I hope I'm saying that right. This area was really really politically focused back in the time of the Medici oh the Medici family.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the Medici.
Speaker 3:Very, very well known in Italy. Yes, so very, very political, and the outside area has all of these statues, so it's actually an outside museum. They call it like an open air, beautiful, open-air museum outside Open-air museum there's all of these beautiful statues, wow, including the statue of David. Oh, the infamous statue. Not the original, not the original. This is a replica oh, where the statue of David used to stand after Michelangelo created it.
Speaker 2:Wow, yeah so who created the replica.
Speaker 3:Good question, I don't know. Oh, we're going to have to open our history books to find out. I'm not exactly sure. But again, it's very open, very Renaissance style, a lot of statues all over the place where you can just really take in the art of that era, of that time.
Speaker 2:Well, the Renaissance was very known for art. It was an enlightening time, yeah, and people just love that. And now these statues that you're looking at in the open air museum must have been gorgeous, yeah, and were they also marble?
Speaker 3:Yeah, oh no, I don't believe they were all marble.
Speaker 1:I don't believe some of them were.
Speaker 3:Yeah, for example, there was a statue of Medici, the father of. Medici. I think his name was Giovanni. I don't think what his name was, don't quote me on that.
Speaker 1:But he was the father.
Speaker 3:He was the one who started everything Right and there was a statue of him. So again history. So much history and next to every statue obviously there's a plaque where you can learn more about it and it tells you who actually created it.
Speaker 2:So it's a wonderful site and there were still about what 27 of you wandering with the tour guide.
Speaker 3:Uh-huh, there were 27 of us and again we have our little whispers, you know in our ears. We did have somebody who did have a hearing aid, so they kind of stayed close to the tour guide because they couldn't put the little whisper in their ear.
Speaker 2:It doesn't work with hearing aids too well, Right right.
Speaker 3:So, and I just mentioned that because you know if you can't put those little things in your ear because there are little buds that you stick in your ear. Right. So if you can't, it's not the end of the world, you just kind of stay close to the tour guide, almost like an earbud Right. You don't keep listening to their music.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 3:Which I kind of enjoyed, everybody He'd go with the group, so it was really nice because I was still able to hear everything that was being said Right, but I didn't have to say right on top of her. It was very nice, yeah. So then, of course, as we're strolling and we're learning more about Florence, then she takes us to the Academy Galleria.
Speaker 2:Oh, Academy Galleria. Do you?
Speaker 3:know what's in there? No, what's in there? The Statue of David.
Speaker 2:Ah, so there's the statue, the original Statue of David.
Speaker 1:Did you?
Speaker 2:see any differences between the real one and the replica yes, lots of differences.
Speaker 3:Number one the size Right. So yes, there's a lot of differences. Number one the size Right. So yes, there's a lot of differences. But again, the statue itself. When you first walk in, we did the skip the line Because Kelting Tours went ahead and put all of that together. Which I was really glad because you should have seen the line. See, it went all the way out the building. Wow, it was crazy how far out it went.
Speaker 2:So basically Kelting Tours made these reservations in advance for everybody to be there on that day. So basically you skip the line and go right past everybody because you already got your tickets. Yep.
Speaker 3:You skip the line and you go right through. So is this like a museum? It is a museum, okay, yeah, yeah. And what was what's nice is there were so many of us. I mean we're 20, 27 of us, yeah, so they, they did split us up in two, which was nice because then, we had two tour guides at one point, so we didn't have to worry about all of us trying to cram in at the same time, so it was really nice.
Speaker 3:But the first thing you do, you walk through, you walk through the corridor and then he tells us all about the history of Michelangelo. And then you go through the hallway and as you're walking towards the hallway, you see this 17 enormous statue of david and along the sides you see different pieces of artwork that michael angelo actually did as he, as he was creating david. So there's all of these marble, and this is done in marble right. There's all of these marble and this is done in marble right. There's all of these unfinished marble pieces aligning along the walkway as you walk to this absolutely huge, beautiful statue of David.
Speaker 2:It's amazing to see that kind of a talent, to see that somebody could actually carve such detail in marble. And he was a genius. He was, and it's amazing to see all of this and here it is right in front of you.
Speaker 3:That in itself was a trip it. I just I could not, I could not believe. I was in awe. I was really literally in awe, just taking it in and walking around. And as we're listening to him, I had a gentleman at that point listening to him describe you know what Michelangelo was thinking as he was creating David. Right, the size of David's hands were so much larger than the rest of his body, the proportion of his hands were so much larger, and Michelangelo said that it's because he was so strong. Right, His strength was in his hands.
Speaker 3:His head was also larger than the rest of his body, and that's because he was smart.
Speaker 2:Oh. So they made his brain larger, michelangelo created almost a character in this creation of his Fabulous I mean just fabulous.
Speaker 3:So again, it is such a magnificent site and definitely a must-see and you have to go skip the line because the line was crazy.
Speaker 2:Celtic tours helps you, skip the line, always help you skip the line.
Speaker 3:So the original statue was. I told you was in the courtyard area. And it was there until 1873. And then that's when they moved it to the Galleria.
Speaker 1:Right, and that's when the replica was placed Right.
Speaker 2:Naturally they want to protect the original. Yeah, that would make sense to me. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because it is out in the elements, if you look at the replica.
Speaker 3:it is out there in the elements and one of the things I noticed those who have seen the statue of David or haven't, I think everybody knows that it is a complete nude statue and one of the things you'll notice about the statue that is the replica, he does have a leaf Right, a little leaf, which he does not have. And it's 17th theme of gorgeousness when it's real artwork.
Speaker 2:you have to have the original, you have to see the original.
Speaker 3:You really do you can't cover things up.
Speaker 2:That's what it was meant to look like.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I love that and I was really, really surprised it only took Michelangelo four years to complete it.
Speaker 2:Four years.
Speaker 3:I thought it was much, I thought it would take much longer.
Speaker 2:Considering the height and the detail.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, amazing, yeah, amazing, yeah. And then he was doing that along with many of his other works.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly, it wasn't just that, yeah, yeah. So he'd get up one day and say, okay, I'm gonna work on right now, I'm gonna work on david the next day, yeah, so, and then after david, you can see there's another room with other works of art from other artists during that time period, including Michelangelo's, his trainer, the person who actually taught- him. Right, you know how to sculpt. Right. There's a lot of his piece Right Because he was an apprentice.
Speaker 3:He was an apprentice, he started off very young as an apprentice, so you can go in there and you see other beautiful, different works of art from other artists from that time period. So there's another entire room where you can look at those.
Speaker 2:That's really nice, yeah, so now you're in. It's what was it again? The Piazza, it was a Galleria.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we were in the Galleria. We were in the gallery. Yes, correct, it sounds like a mall. Yeah, yeah, we were in the gallery at the academy gallery, our academia, the gallery.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, so you're in.
Speaker 3:I hope I said that right and it's a museum which is fabulous and showing all this artwork.
Speaker 2:And then then what? Where did you go then?
Speaker 3:well, after we took the rest of the afternoon. Okay, after the tour, everybody got a break. We got a break.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Because at that point I think we had been on our tour for probably about three hours total.
Speaker 2:That would make sense, it was quite some time.
Speaker 3:I mean I just told you a few of the highlights. I didn't tell you everything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that would make sense, because if you're in these museums, you know you don't run into a museum, you stop, you look, you enjoy, you know you take it in. Yeah, and that's part of the experience of a museum, of course, of course, yeah, so we can see.
Speaker 3:And not just that, but of all of Florence. You know we would stop, we would take pictures, we would. It was a leisurely tour, but you did do some walking because you're walking from place to place.
Speaker 2:I mean, florence is pretty big. Now you've all taken a break from your tour guides and everybody kind of scatters, yep, and we all kind of scatter.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and the rest of the afternoon was free, as I said, I think about this point it was probably about 1.30, 2 o'clock time period, so we all kind of scattered and a lot of people they went shopping. Oh, there was this pizza place with these large pizzas and people wanted to stop and have pizza or gelato.
Speaker 1:You know you want to get something.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because they hadn't really eaten since breakfast so they wanted to get some food. I actually wandered to a little cafe with some wonderful little pastries and desserts with a couple of the other ladies and we sat at the cafe and we ordered some wine and ordered a couple pastries and we just watched people. I love that.
Speaker 2:I love watching people. Yes, I love that Because you just sit, you relax, you watch people. You see the expressions on their face when they're enjoying themselves and seeing all these sights, and sometimes it's a way to make friends. It is, it is.
Speaker 3:And then, after our little cafe, we just kind of wandered, went into some of the shops. I actually went into a gelato place. I said should I, should I not? Should I not? Should I, should I not? Okay, no, not tonight. I think I gained 10 pounds on this trip, which we know well, we've made enough food. Oh, my goodness. So we just wandered, and then we all met back in one location where the bus actually Okay, so you're still in Florence, right, we're still in Florence, and then we all gathered and we met back at one location.
Speaker 3:Some people decided that they were going to take the train back. Oh, so we didn't have everybody come back on our motor coach with us because they decided they were going to take the train and stay in Florence for the rest of the evening. Oh, okay, which was fine, as long as they told me Exactly.
Speaker 2:You need to know, as a group, who's where and you want to do that and then, because it is, more of a laid back pipe tour.
Speaker 3:You're able to say, okay, enjoy yourselves, right, right, yeah. So and I said, yeah, absolutely stay. Just don't forget the last train. I think it's 11 o'clock, right, you know? Back to back to the villa, so make sure you don't miss it. And then some of us went back, and then we got ready for dinner that evening, okay.
Speaker 2:So it was. It was late in the day, it was late.
Speaker 3:It was five o'clock, yeah it was five o'clock, so we got ready for dinner that evening and that was it. That was the end of that day. I was exhausted, I was really tired. You didn't shop. I did some shopping, oh. I was going to say I did some shopping, but I actually went by the leather market again.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, because the leather market.
Speaker 3:I think I mentioned that in one of my last podcast about the leather market. So I did go to the leather market again, did you?
Speaker 1:get leather this time.
Speaker 3:Hempden hot, hempden hot, hempden hot. I'm like okay, no so you didn't get any leather.
Speaker 2:I didn't get anything this time. Okay, that's all right, next time, next time, I'm going back. So here we are in Florence. It was a day full of touring, and then, after the tour was over, it was a day, and the rest of the day was kind of relaxing and wandering on your own, discovering what was around, and then deciding whether to go back to the villa for dinner or stay in Florida.
Speaker 3:Yeah Well, you know, that's what's so nice about these tours you don't have to do everything. It's not like, okay, well, you've got to do this and you've got to do this and you've got to do this, right, you know, we give you free time. We give you if you'd like to join us on the tours. Join us on the tours. Right, you know time we give you. If you'd like to join us on the tours, join us on the tours. Right, you know, if you don't want to, that's okay. I mean, they are included, obviously, and most people do come. But it was really really nice that some people said you know what? I'm not coming back with you. Right, we're just gonna hang back, we're gonna relax, we're gonna have dinner in florence, we're gonna look through the wine windows you know it's nice to have that kind of flexibility.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:And I know that with Celtic Tours we give you that.
Speaker 2:That's nice. Celtic Tours gives you the flexibility of rolling on your own a little bit, yeah, which is kind of nice.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we don't want you to have to be rushed, and you know, go, go, go go go.
Speaker 2:We want you to be able to enjoy your vacation, because that's what it's all about. And again, there is walking. So everybody be aware You're going to be walking, make sure you have comfortable clothes, comfortable shoes, yeah, and just get ready to relax and enjoy. Now you went back to Villa, yes, and did you go to any special place for dinner that night, actually?
Speaker 3:we did, we went. So Villa Casa Grande has a restaurant. It's across the street, on the hilltop. It's called.
Speaker 2:Cilo.
Speaker 3:C-I-L-O. I think I'm saying that right Cilo Okay. And it is a beautiful restaurant overlooking all of Pignanada and Mabinado, so you can see the entire city. It's on the top of the hill. I can tell you, going up that hill is not easy, not easy.
Speaker 1:You're going to be, hungry by the time you get to it.
Speaker 3:And I'm not. It takes like a five-minute walk, but it's a very, very steep hill Right, so you take your time.
Speaker 2:You get up there, then you relax for your dinner. You 16th Hill Right, so you take your time. You get up there, then you relax for your dinner. You do you relax for your dinner.
Speaker 3:Well, downhill is always better than uphill it is, it is, it is, and I'm assuming it's later in the day it is.
Speaker 3:But at this point, yeah, goodness, yeah, because by the time we got back it was six o'clock, so I think it was 730, eight o'clock, yeah, so a bunch of us just went up to the restaurant and we had made a reservation. As soon as we got there, you know, I went to the front desk saying, can we make a reservation? They said, yeah, how many? And we made the reservation. We went up to the hilltop and yeah it was. It was a beautiful dinner. The service it's a very small restaurant, it's not large, but the service was spectacular. You get there, you order your drinks. They have a full service bar.
Speaker 1:You can order anything you like, it's not just wine, right?
Speaker 3:So they do have a full-service bar and their menu was very, very extensive. It wasn't like two or three things.
Speaker 2:Now is this restaurant associated with Villa.
Speaker 3:Castellani, it is it is Now.
Speaker 2:Was Mama? No, no, mama Lana was not part of it. Mama Lana's not part of the restaurant. She's not part of the restaurant. She has her own restaurant. She has her own thing going on, yeah.
Speaker 3:So, but I have to tell you again, it was really, really hard. But when in Italy you got to have the pasta, oh yeah, I ordered a gnocchi. Oh okay, gnocchi in a white sauce, okay, like a white cream sauce and oh my gosh, the gnocchi. It was so fresh.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, so fresh. Well, they make everything fresh over there.
Speaker 3:It was absolutely wonderful. It's not like the gnocchi that you get your.
Speaker 1:Publix in a package, you know Right, oh my gosh it's completely different, so just it was perfect.
Speaker 3:It was tender inside, kind of crispy outside oh nice, kind of crispy outside. It's nice to kind of fry it up a little bit. It's just absolutely fabulous. And I have to tell you, z, one of the most ordinary dishes that came to the table right was a sea bass. I love sea bass. I do too. I really love sea bass. So we had a couple people order this. It comes to the table and it looks like a big burnt blob oh, a big burnt blob.
Speaker 2:It was like a crunchy. I know it didn't.
Speaker 3:I'm telling you, it got there and it didn't look appetizing. It was a crunchy crust Right and you take your fork and you kind of hit it Right. The sea bass was inside of this and it was, oh my gosh, delish, absolutely delicious phenomenal, but we don't know what was.
Speaker 2:Did you eat the outside?
Speaker 3:yes, I, you could eat the outside I actually took. Now, the lady next to me was I'm not eating that this is the one who ordered it but I said, well, let me try it. And I took a little piece of it and I think it, because they said it was a sea bass but like a truffle, so I think it had like a truffle coating right outside. It was almost like a breading of some sort or a crust.
Speaker 3:It was more of a very thin, thin flaky, like truffle skin maybe. Oh, okay, we tried to get the information. You know exactly what. It was Right and it was difficult. It was difficult, we couldn't figure it out. And even one of the ladies who's from Italy. She had no idea what that was, but it was just amazing. So the food, there is really really fabulous.
Speaker 2:Now did you know what kind of price point you were looking at.
Speaker 3:So you know it was average.
Speaker 2:It wasn't really it wasn't like.
Speaker 3:Even though it looked like a fine dining restaurant, it wasn't like you were looking at 35, 40 euros for a plate for a meal. I think my gnocchi was like 17 euros.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's nothing. So yeah it's. I mean, it's kind of a typical, depending on what the dollar euro is. Did you have any dessert, or was it that wine again? No, no.
Speaker 3:I did not have dessert. I don't think anybody had dessert this time we were. We were pretty full. We had, of course, some appetizers.
Speaker 2:Right, they do the antipasta, yeah, we had.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we had the antipasta.
Speaker 3:We did have some meatballs, so we had all kinds of.
Speaker 2:So you're munching along the way before the meal yeah, yeah, very nice. Very nice, and then everybody got to walk back down the hill, and then we all walked back down the hill. So how many of you went to the?
Speaker 3:restaurant. Oh goodness. Well, we had a really, really large table, I would probably say about between 12 and 15. Oh, okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so almost more than half of the two of you, oh yeah. And it sounds like a beautiful restaurant overlooking the hills.
Speaker 3:It looks like a fine dining restaurant when you go there. Wow, it looks just like a beautiful, fine dining restaurant and that was a full day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was a full day. Yeah, down in Florence, back to the villa and back to dinner. Yeah, so wonderful. Again, thank you, thank you, thank you for telling me all about this. I want to go and try that sea bass, I know.
Speaker 3:Sea bass in a bowl.
Speaker 2:I took a picture of it, just because I had to. You would have to take a picture of it because describing it, you can't imagine Right the taste and they probably just told you to eat. I had a friend one time went to Italy, went into a restaurant middle of nowhere and said seed me. Yeah. And they loved that. They just brought over all sorts of dishes for him and he ate it. Everything was delicious, yeah.
Speaker 3:I love doing that yeah.
Speaker 2:Great.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, thank you again for joining me. Yeah, thanks so much for having me Z.
Speaker 1:Well, that's it for today's episode of the Z Michelson Travel Podcast. I hope you enjoyed our journey and found some new inspiration for your next adventure. Remember, the world is full of stories and sometimes all it takes is a plane ticket to start your own adventure. If you loved today's episode, be sure to tune in every week and don't forget to share your favorite travel moments with me on social media. I'd really love to hear about where you're headed to next. Social media I'd really love to hear about where you're headed to next. So until next time, keep exploring, keep discovering and, as always, keep traveling with your heart wide open. I'm Zee Michelson and I'll see you on the next adventure.