Florence...too much Renaissance is not enough!

We left Amalfi early as the trip to Florence was a long one. We had a few short stops and arrived in Florence in the late afternoon. The trip was through beautiful Tuscany with some light rain on and off. The hotel in Florence was a lovely old building, with beautiful painted ceilings in our rooms. We spent the remaining few hours of daylight exploring nearby. Around the corner from the hotel was a small square with a lovely church and beautiful buildings surrounding it. From there we followed the streets off it and landed at Santa Maria del Fiore. There are no words to describe the magnificence of this, photos do it no justice, you couldn't even fit it in to photograph properly anyway. We wandered around in awe, distracted only by a large Lindt chocolate store...more flavours than we had ever seen!

Later that night we headed out to a cute little restaurant we had seen walking. We wanted to eat outside, but it had been raining so we had to eat inside. It was very rustic with all sorts of antiques. I had the Tuscan grill. This was amazing, a selection of meats and veges char-grilled Tuscan style. One of the best meals I have ever had!

The next day we left the hotel for a walking tour with our group. We headed for Santa Maria del Fiore first off, then further along the streets, with more beauty on each street corner than you can imagine. Now, I know I said this of Rome, but Florence is even more concentrated. It is a relatively small city, easy to walk around, we covered pretty much everything that day.

We walked through the backstreets, hearing stories about the city from our guide. She showed us a small spout/hole in the corner of one building. There are only a few left, these were where alcohol, specifically wine, was distributed from. I do not think it was a prohibition thing, more excessive alcohol was frowned upon. If you wanted any, you had to know where to go and subtly organise to get some...that is turn up and place your bottle near the spout.

We continued through the streets, squares and marveled at the beauty. But nothing can prepare you when you walk into the Piazza Della Signoria, filled round the edges with magnificent marble statues, including a replica David, and a huge fountain. I didn't know where to look first, also shadowing over all of this was the Palazzo Vecchio, the original Florence Town Hall from the early 1300s. The whole feel of this open air sculpture gallery was power, magnificence, and overwhelming beauty.

We then moved through more back streets before finishing our tour at the Basilica of Santa Croce. Before heading off on our own we had a tour of a gold and leather factory. It was interesting, but more of a shopping expedition than anything. I do not wear gold and the leather was more traditional type goods which is not for me, I did buy a lovely leather bound notebook, which I can reuse, much more useful.

We were then on our own for the rest of the day and we hit the ground running, well sort of.

First stop was the Basilica of Santa Croce, what a marvelous building, filled with history, art and beauty. There were tombs of Galileo (one of my heroes), Michelangelo, Machiavelli, and Rossini amongst others. Also a funerary monument to Dante, he is buried elsewhere. There was also a great statue of him outside the church...one day I will finish The Divine Comedy! The church had many paintings, mosaics, and frescoes including a couple of Donatellos. We exited into a courtyard with cloisters taking you to other rooms with all sorts of different historical items from religious alters, to opera sets, a monument for Florence Nightingale and an area where you watch people painstakingly restoring a huge gold statue of a religious figure...fascinating.

From there we made our way to the Museo Galileo, the institute of science and technology. This houses mostly scientific instruments including navigation tools, globes, telescopes, medical instruments, calculating devices, thermometers, etc. The navigating tools were fascinating, the collection of globes jaw dropping, such precision. Dad found a globe with parts of Australia on it from around the mid 1600s (I think, but definitely before we were discovered)...yeah, yeah, should have paid more attention in Australian History...yawn...

The Galileo section was amazing, looking at all of his tools of the trade and thinking all of his achievements were accomplished with them. I believe he designed and made most of the himself. Main piece was his actual telescope...very cool stuff indeed.

There was also a rather macabre glass case with some of his fingers and a tooth preserved in bottles. The museum has had one finger for many years, the other two (and the tooth) only turned up a few years ago, having being bought at auction after disappearing in 1905! Quite amazing, and one of the fingers is his middle finger (right hand I think), so there it sits in its jar, kinda sticking it up to the world...he was right after all ;) That amused my perverse mind no end.

Oh yeah, and I couldn't stop singing The Indigo Girls...seemed fitting.

We then headed across the river via Ponte Vecchio, renown for its gold shops, it was a bit overwhelming and incredibly busy. By this stage it was early afternoon and we were hungry and it was getting rather hot. We were headed for Boboli Gardens, there were some cafes outside the palace by the gardens. They were all very expensive, and in the sun. I thought I had struck gold when I came across a nice one with pizzas for 8E and inside seating...it would appear all the gold had been left on the bridge. The pizzas were frozen and reheated, they charged you to eat there, the drinks were outrageously expensive, but it was out of the heat...ripped off big time, but at least we had cooled down!

We headed over to the Pitti Palace to collect tickets for the gardens. Would have loved to look at the palace, but we were short of time, and knew the gardens were amazing and the views of Florence not to be missed. And they were! The amphitheatre was large and above were hundreds of stairs up a hill to ponds and fountains. I got most of the way up, but my dodgy knee was not happy and it was hot. Dad and Amanda went further and said the areas higher were great too. There were amazing views looking down to Florence from the level I got to. Totally worth the climb in the heat.

We headed back to the hotel to get ready for our evening out. Our group were being transported to a Castle in Tuscany for dinner. The journey took about an hour through the Tuscan hills around dusk in truly stunning countryside. Very sharp and tight turns to get there, but wow what a place. Castello del Trebbio was built in the 12th Century, belonged to The Pazzis and the backdrop to the attempted murder of The Medici brothers. It had been restored and owned by the current family since the late 60s. It is a vineyard, growing grapes for Chianti and also grows olives.

We were lucky to get a tour through the castle, a rarity. What a beautiful place. One large room looked out to the vineyards, had a grand piano and a striking painting of two young girls on the wall. It was a Raphael!! The twin to a similar painting hanging in The Louvre! No photos were allowed, I suspect many do not even know this exists. I was gobsmacked, who knows what other great pieces of art are around on private walls and unaccounted for. The tour took us through many more rooms filled with antiques, before heading to the cellars and looking at the wine vats and hearing about the processes to make the Chianti and also the olive oil.

We then headed for a large dining area for a typical Tuscan workers meal. Tables of pancetta, cheeses, olives, lamb, salad, bread and a special Tuscan tomato 'Soup'. This was made from crushed tomatoes, olive oil, old bread and herbs...oh my, it was delicious. Oh, and bottles of Chianti, followed by dessert wine which you dipped biscotti into. We all rolled home a little tipsy and thrilled by our evenings experiences. What a fantastic end to our short stay in Florence.

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