Firenze, part 2.

Okey dokes, where were we? This blog writing is quite laborious...

So we were in Florence and pleasantly didn't have to get up at the crack of dawn! First things first, we were off for our group photo which after finding a market set up where they wanted to take a pic, we ended up in the Piazza near the fake David. Now, for those of you who have no idea what I am going on about, David is a statue and the real one is in a gallery, but a replica stands in the piazza with the pigeons and the weather.

Now after the photo taking there was an included leather and gold/silver demonstartion that some of us decided to skip because we had bookings at some galleries in the afternoon and wanted some more free time to wander around and potter in the shops. So we wandered about, took pics and found some breakfast, out in the sunshine. Perfect! We even went to the stationary shop where on my last trip to Florence I bought my fountain pen from! Ah, the memories - i love that shop! Nessa got a great leather jacket - very nice! And i managed to pick up a couple of leather cuffs that i had been looking for in Perth so all in all it was quite a successful morning. Then it was back to the group for a guided tour around the main sights, the Duomo, the bridge and river, the Uffizi Gallery and statues and so on. I have to say, the tours really make the difference, as long as you can hear/see the guide because then you actually know what you are looking at.

As I've previously mentioned, vegetables were becoming a novel concept, so because we had a little break before we had to be at the Uffizi Gallery, we raced back down the road to a shop we had seen that had some awesome looking salads on display. YUM!

Talk about overwelming, the Uffizi Gallery was filled with artworks and sculptures that can be appreciated by anyone. The gallery houses some of the most famous pieces in the world, like da Vinchi and Botichelli, and what seems like thousands of icon/crucifiction scenes which I can't really say are realy to my taste but so totally amazing in terms of the work and skill and materials that have gone into them. Most of them are overlaid with gold leaf.

After the Uffizi, it was some more free time before heading to the Gallery Academia, which houses the real David. So, after some more browsing around, through the markets and purchasing another magnet for the new fridge that I will have to buy when I get home, we arrived at the gallery and headed into see the man.
Talk about amazing, this was phenomenal. Having such a limited knowledge about sculpting, this was impressive. How does someone capture emotion, let alone such an accurate replication of the human body, complete with veins and muscle definition? Totally cool. The only thing that seemed a little wrong was the fact that his hands are absolutely huge...

In the rooms surrounding David there were displays of plaster moulds of various statues. Now just a thought, but, really, some of those 'cherubs' just creep me out. And, another thing, why, in a country where I am currently walking around with about 4 layers on and my insanely colourful, thick wollen scarf, despite the fact the sun is actually out, why are all the statues nude? It isn't that I am against nudity, clearly not, go for it, but jesus, this town ain't exactly like Cottesloe on a hot summers day.

After being overwhelmed by the creative genius that is the statue of David, it was time to wander back to the hotel for a well deserved nap before the 'Tuscan Dinner', one of the optional excursions offered as part of the tour.

The dinner itself was at a restaurant in the hills of Tuscany, so it was back in da coach for us. But, as a highlight, we stopped on the way at the Piazza Michaelangelo which overlooks the city of Florence for some nice sunset happy snaps. Then, back on da coach-a.

Throughout the tour, the music on da coach-a was leaving a lot to be desired (obviously excluding the Madonna and Lenny frenzy). Now for some inexplicable reason, during this journey something amazing happened. It was as if someone had gotten hold of a couple of Triple J cd's - hurrah! Go Fabio!

Once at the dinner, we were treated to range of different 'local' (?) specialities. The highlight of the meal was the eldery waiter, who clearly spoke not a word of English, wheeling out a trolley complete with a large roasted piece of pork. Now that in itself wasn't particularly exciting, other than the fact it wasn't pizza. The exciting part was that for some reason the restaurant felt it appropriate to stick large sparkler/fireworks into the damn thing, switch the lights off and wheel around a piece of meat with fire comeing out of it! Totally crazy.

The highlight of the evening itself was chatting with Holly and hearing her inpersonation of Simona, our Tour Manager - "Consider dis when you are on da coach-a!" Freaking hilarious. She is awesome! Ever since hearing that, the back of the bus was in hysterics ever time Simona said it - which was constantly!

After dinner, it was off to the Space Club, yes a dodgy space themed night club, complete with more karoke. After some drinks and some singing - I was particularly amused by an interesting rendition of Whitney Houston's 'I will always love you' by Nathan and Jeff , they got me up there and I sang 'We will rock you' by Queen with the lovely Ashley. You would think I would be the first one up there, seeing as I love the public speaking aspect of my job but no, apparently, I am a massive wimp!

Now, the club, tacky though it was, and filled with enough young people to make me feel like my next home should be a nursing home, was a good venue to have a laugh. The unamusing part of the night came to trying to leave. For some STUPID reason, they think it is a good idea to give you a little card to stamp everytime you get a drink and then you pay up at the end of the night. Only problem with that is (apart from being really dumb) is that you end up stuck in this massive que, trying to avoid mauling teenagers, and all you want is to get the f*** out of there. Damn idiotic. So we finally escape the club and do the wander home, in the rain.

Notes & amusing quotes for the day:

• "Look at you, with the world's biggest thingy" said to a boy by a girl...and yes, i know it's juvineile but being on a tour will do that to a person
  
• When the big thingy was gone - "it got swallowed" - again, poor humour, but just go with it.
  
• At some stage you will always have to direct someone to McDonalds. Strange but true. Unfortunately there is a Maccas in Florence
  
• The town bells start ringing again at 7am - I know, because I listened for them all night when I couldn't sleep - who gets insomina on a tour? Jeepers!

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