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There wasn’t any formal shooting schedule today, but I went out for a while anyway. Got up about 6:30 and headed straight for the ATM. Yesterday, when I stopped there, the street was very crowded and I was very paranoid and only took out 100 Euros, feeling very vulnerable until I could get the card and cash stowed. This morning, the street was deserted and I didn’t feel rushed. Plus, the sun was at a different angle and I could actually read the screen!!!
I didn’t shoot for long. We have really yucky skies today - solid overcast. It made the light even, but don’t include any sky in the shot! I shot the three photos above this morning. I found this row of motorscooters in the photo on the left on a back street. There were lots of motorscooters in Florence. The center photo is one of the fountains near the Ponte Vecchio. The photo on the right is a door near the Uffizi.
I finished packing and got breakfast (or got breakfast and finished packing, I forget which). We were to have everything downstairs by 9:50, as the driver was coming at 10 and we only had a very, very short window of time to load the van. The hotel is on a very narrow street and, while the van is stopped for us, no one else can get by.
Michelle went out for a while shooting. She lucked onto a Medieval festival of some sort in the Piazza della Signoria while she was out. People dressed in costumes and tossing flags and a band was playing. Hope she got some good shots!
We were all ready on time and waiting when Giovanni drove up. The van was loaded in record time and we were on our way without inconveniencing anyone else!
Our first stop was at the Certosa de Firenze, which is a monastery on the outskirts of Florence (Firenze is the Italian spelling of Florence). It’s still an active monastery with a handful of monks residing there. They’re not as secluded as they were when the monastery was established. At that time, the monks stayed in their apartments almost all the time, coming together just once a week for a communal meal. Each apartment included a cooking area, a sleeping area, a meditation area, private privy, and private garden. Each monk grew his own food and cooked for himself.
The photo on the left above is from the cloister of the monastery. The center photo is a view of the cloister hallway with its repeating arches. The photo on the right is the view from one of the inner courtyards.
We spent a quiet hour there, shooting. However, the chapel was closed when we came back through. There had been an opportunity to shoot in there earlier and we anticipated a chance to come back, but the monks changed their mind and locked us out....
So we went on down the road. We stopped for a leisurely lunch along the way. I can’t remember what I had, but it was good.
We soon arrived at Villa Rosa and were assigned our rooms. They’re completely booked, so the accommodations weren’t what Bill expected. Most of the group wound up in the annex across the street from the Villa itself. This gave them a lot of privacy and they took over the whole building. Michelle and I were in the main building, on the top floor. The room was smaller than the one in Florence, which surprised everyone, including Bill. The rest of the group all had larger rooms than Florence.
The Villa Rosa is owned by the same couple who owned the Torre Guelfa in Florence. This is a photo (left) of the front of Villa Rosa. Our room is on the top floor, near the back. You can see one of our windows in this photo - all the way to the right, along the right wall.
The owners have a very nice, friendly dog. I think it’s a Brittany spaniel - white and black with a wonderful black mask around the eyes.
It’s a nice room, but a bit cramped for the two of us. However, there’s two windows, so we have good cross ventilation. And it’s much cooler than Florence. Michelle soon found us a fan, so we had our white noise back again. Oh, and the bathroom was larger here than in Florence...
We got settled in, then attempted to fill the hours until dinner (8 pm). Some walked around the area. Others napped. I grabbed my camera and got some macro shots of some sedum growing near the annex (right). Then I went back and did some laundry and almost fell asleep.
We were informed that we would only have the van for a total of six hours a day! So, if we start very early in the morning, then we’re stuck at the Villa from noon on. That doesn’t sound much like a photo tour... Of our six mornings here, we will have the van early in the day just twice.
Dinner was delicious, which would be the case every night we spent at the Villa Rosa. I didn’t write down what we had each night, but it was all good. One night we had a pasta with lemon and basil sauce that was out of this world! Each meal was three courses - an antipasto of some sort, a pasta dish, and a meat dish with salad. And most evenings, there was vin santo for dessert!
This night, there was a large group at one of the other tables - about 14 people altogether. They were quite loud, especially for that room (the former wine cellar), which echoed badly (it was completely brick lined). It was hard to hear a conversation at our table over them.