October 9, 2017 (Monday)

October 8, 2018

Today we’re tackling the Duomo complex. We have 12p.m. tickets for the Duomo itself. In some ways there has been a bit too much scheduling on this vacation, and it feels like we haven’t been able to sleep in for even a single day so far. Grr. Yesterday we raced off to get a train […]

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October 8, 2017 (Sunday)

October 7, 2018

We went to Fiesole yesterday, where, among other things, we had an excellent lunch. The restaurant (part of slightly crumbling hotel) was kind of dowdy, but it has a terrace with a fabulous view toward Florence. And the meal – with great old-fashioned service including an ice bucket for our bottle of Pinot Grigio and […]

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October 7, 2017 (Saturday)

October 6, 2018

We started the day yesterday with trying to visit Santa Maria Novella, but since it was 10:45 and it doesn’t open till 11 on Fridays, we walked instead to the San Lorenzo Basilica. Paid the admission after finding the front entrance (which involved circumnavigating around a rather forbidding terrace apron that surrounds two sides, which […]

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October 6, 2017 (Friday)

October 5, 2018

Yesterday: first full day in Florence, we walked to the Duomo, but decided against standing in the long, long, long line. Instead we walked to the 13th-century Church of Santo Spirito, where we saw a limewood three-quarters-life-sized Crucified Christ carved by the 18-year old Michelangelo as a thank you to the Augustine Abbot for letting […]

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October 5, 2017 (Thursday)

October 4, 2018

I’m sitting in the palazzo’s cute little breakfast room (it turns into a bar in the afternoon), listening to Cinematic Orchestra through earbuds, trying to drown out (without much success) the crap pop Italian radio station the waitress has turned to and is playing at rather high volume. We slept well, except I woke up […]

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October 4, 2017 (Wednesday)

October 3, 2018

Definitely not morning pages, definitely not three pages today, either. Survived an overnight flight with Lufthansa to Munich. The plane was actually reasonably comfortable, but I only slept for maybe an hour, if that. Wandered the posh Munich airport till it was time to leave with Air Dolimiti for Florence. It was cold in Munich […]

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October 3, 2017 (Tuesday)

October 2, 2018

Prepared? Unprepared? How do I feel about my trip, my departure this afternoon to Florence? Prepared? Unprepared? Some of both? I’ll take Option Three, please… I know something – some things. But I know a lot of nothing, too. No things. Do the some things and the no things vie for importance, almost like on […]

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October 2, 2017 (Monday)

October 1, 2018

As I sat down this morning to meditate, I swiped right on my phone to pull up the app, and, below the search box, saw the big news item right there, with a much bigger picture and much more screen real estate than what Apple News usually allocates, about the 64-year-old killer who massacred fifty […]

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October 1, 2017 (Sunday)

September 30, 2018

And now it’s October, and, back in B.,  I am already shrinking in fear from the wild idea of moving to New York for, say, a “sabbatical” (whatever its length). Why? Fear of giving up the creature comforts, the happy conveniences of living on a large footprint and accessing familiar services, from doctors and specialists […]

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September 30, 2017 (Saturday)

September 29, 2018

The trip back to Boston was pleasant enough. We took the shuttle bus service again (already prepaid) and this time had an exceptionally chill driver. A young guy from Brooklyn, but now living in Queens, a high schooler during 9/11, calm as can be as he maneuvered through once-again stop and go, sometimes hellish traffic […]

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