Day 39: Florence

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We have planned 3 nights in Florence as we had heard it was just fantastic, no rush then and we headed off to the town center around 8.30am. The campsite is perfectly located for visiting Florence, only a 20min walk down and an easy bus ride back as the walk is very steep, ok going down but murder coming back up again. We got a good start and there were not too many tourists on the streets, first stop was the Ponte Vecchio with all the gold shops going across, it is only one of 3 bridges in the world with shops on them, very cool and very old dating back pre 1500ad. Next stop was the Vecchio Palace and the Saint Maria Cathedral, all were just fantastic to see with the fresco's on the cathedral ceilings spectacular, cant wait to the Sistine Chapel. Heading off towards the Market area we started to notice more and more little tourist shops and tents were appearing, we had not noticed them initially as we were wrapped up in the cathedral and bridge but now they were becoming very prevalent to the stage that it was becoming difficult to get from one place to another, markets and markets and more markets, the ultimate insult was 4 or 5 stalls right in front of this fantastic old church really took the gloss off, we got completely sick of the whole lot and having seen all of the major sites in the city decided that Florence was just one big tourist market and we had had enough. Arriving back to the camper late we turned in early. Camp Michelangelo is a great location but cost 34e per night and had very poor facilities considering the cost, rated at 9 out of 10 for location but a lowly 6 out of 10 for service and value for money. So after 2 nights we were on the road again tomorrow.

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