And so to Florence.

We arrived in Florence on Tuesday on the very fast train from Rome. That was easy.

It goes so fast that you can feel pressure in your ears when the train passes through a tunnel!

As we arrived at our apartment in Piazza Lorenzo Ghiberti the market was just shutting down so we took the few steps over to it and bought ourselves some great fresh vegetables and fruit as well as cheese and bread of course. The stall owners don’t speak much English so we had to attempt Italian and use a lot of sign language, for the first time since arriving in the county.

Our apartment is old and looks like it might once have been a shop. It has many shutters on the windows and some interesting features, but also has some of the down sides of age (its a bit tired and worn out). The location is excellent. We step down almost right into the piazza and walk about ten minutes to the Duomo.

The last three days we have been packing in the sights as we bought a Firenze card which gives us 72 hours admission everywhere with no queuing. I think we have saved money but the jumping the line is an excellent feature . If you are coming to Florence I recommend you buy one.

We are finding it much easier than Roma. The layout is not so confusing, with something of a grid and it is much cleaner. There are still considerable crowds but it is easy to avoid them by just moving a few lane ways over from the main routes through town.

We are, of course, in awe of the architecture and the art history , the art works and particularly of course, the sculptures. We have seen so many treasures, as one must on a visit to Florence , but hopefully not so many as to not remember them. The highlight for me is without a doubt, Michelangelo’s David.

I am no art buff and am not going to tell you anything about the works we have seen but I can tell you that I have thoroughly enjoyed myself and would recommend a visit here. I did a tour to the Uffizzi gallery yesterday and had a Florentine guide. He used a few pieces to illustrate the development of Florentine Renaissance art and did it with flair and drama, as you would expect. It was great.

He recommended the Boboli gardens, which are part of the Pitti Palace and we went there today on a lovely sunny morning. A highlight there was the porcelain museum in the garden.Mind boggling crockery!!

Most days we have walked more than five thousand steps before morning coffee, and another five before lunch. Then at least another five in the afternoons. We are both doing well , though my dodgy ankle did suffer after coming back down the steps in the campanile (bell tower). Just too many hard, uneven, shallow steps. Jock had to go out to the pharmacy for me as we had not bought any anti inflammatory medication with us and I was having trouble walking. He was given some super powder which fixed me in one dose. Amazing stuff.

Today we were in the Piazza Santa Croce as the students on strike began to gather for their climate action march and then we were in the laneway along which the huge mass of them were marching. We tried to show solidarity by saying Bravo and raising our arms (well at least I did). They were a large crowd and we noticed a newspaper headline later, that all over Tuscany students went on strike, as I am sure they did in Australia. What an awesome international movement that has become.

We have had some wonderful food here. We found a quiet trattoria yesterday where some Italian workers were having lunch: antipasto, pasta and glass of red. How do they do that?? We had just one dish, of course and that day, no wine,which does raise eyebrows. There is no legal age for drinking here and alcohol is available everywhere. Even cafes that serve only paninis (like bakeries) can and do serve alcohol. It must be a quite a shock for Italian travellers to Australia to deal with the limits and the expense. The wine is very reasonably priced here, as is the food.

Last night we ate in view of the Duomo.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Cathedral

One of the places that you would expect to be over crowded and over priced due to its location, but it wasn’t either of those things, so we had a wonderful relaxing time. I ate a Tuscan specialty of eggplant rolled round mozzarella and anchovies with , of course, a rich tomato sauce. Jock had another specialty of the region, a risotto with cheese and bacon.

Once again the waiter seemed very pleased by our interest in the food and at the end of the meal offered us a limoncello on the house. Of course I said yes . I couldn’t believe that it was actually the first one I have had since arriving. But what a slippery slope that is – I love that stuff!!

Well the church bells are ringing for 6pm, time to go and do some other things and see the end of the day. Ciao.

P.S. I will upload more photos later, the internet is just too slow tonight.

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