on to Florence

3 am rise to fly and we are now in Florence.

WOW! is the only thing I can say.

There was a bit of a mix up when we arrived, tired and a bit grumpy it might be added. We couldn’t check our luggage into the apartment because the other tenants were still there. Fortunately the manager at the coffee shop beside us took our luggage into the back for us. I’ve fallen a bit in love with him …so Italian..Somebody wanted to know how I had persuaded him … oh if only!

Anyway back to the tour. We are right beside the Duomo and I’m afraid the pictures do not do it justice at all. Our first guided tour was Galleria Academie where David is. I have seen so many photos of David and really was unimpressed by the number of people who have seen him live and ranted and raved about him. They were right! The photos do not describe the tension of the body and those staring eyes are really looks of sheer concentration. Guys.

You’ve got to go there some time!

There is also a little music museum where there is the first upright piano.

We then had an arranged lunch and the food here is terrific. We checked into our apartment then in the afternoon. It is an original building from the Medici times and the baroness lives in the apartment upstairs (we rode down the wee wee elevator with her). The ceiling is painted in medieval times. Stefano, who greeted us gave us the ‘out of the way ‘ restaurants to go to and the best gelato shops. There are about ten and only five days, Whey hey!

 

Later that afternoon we went on the remaining part of the tour Uffizi (pronounced youfeetsy). I realized we were a bit art brain exhausted when after we ooohed and ahhed at Botticelli’s Birth of Venus and I watched some guy do a selfie against it. We shot through the Leonardo Da Vinci room and raced along Raphael’s Madonna and Caravaggio’s Medussa. those art historians amongst you would be horrified. Especially when today I made Pat take a photo of me photobombing against Michael Angelo’s Pieta.

Strolling around there are so many scenes, music on the street, bands playing in the square.

Today Paula, Tom and Brian went on the Tuscan wine tour while Pat and I remained in Florence. We took our time getting up and in the coffee shop beside us, after I stopped gazing at the manager we started talking to an American couple, who told us the best places to go today.

The beauty of it was that some of the churches and art museums are free on a Sunday and today the other paying ones are empty. We went to see the Museumof the Duomo, which has been recently installed. Fantastic medieval sculpture of the Mary Magdalene looking like it was a current day one

We were quite underimpressed with the Ponte Vecchio bridge where there are all the jewelry shops. Far too expensive and too many tourists.