Florence Tuscany Italy 11 October 2013

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Florence Tuscany Italy 11 October 2013

We only had about 80 kms to drive to our camp site (Camping Michelangelo) which was a 5 minute walk from the Pizzale Michelangelo lookout where all the tourists go to gaze over Florence. Sheryl (my sister), Tom & I did this in 2002 when we were in Florence last time.

It was 6.30pm so we decided to do some admin work and I had to get my blog up to date. I got quite behind during our busy time with Kerrie & Gemma – so sorry for the recent frequency of my publishing of the blog. During the evening it poured with rain so we were pleased to have decided not to go into the city that night.

Next morning (11/12) we found that the sky was blue and clear and it was a beautiful day, a wonderful day to re-explore beautiful Florence.

Of course the 1^st thing we did was to go back to the Pizzale Michelangelo with his massive statue still dominating the area. We gaze over the city with all its red tiled roves, with the Cathedral and several Basilicas dominating the skyline. It really is an attractive city.

We walked down the hill towards the river, winding our way through gardens and narrow streets. We saw and then walked over the famous Ponte Veccio Bridge with its multiple little shops which line the walkway across the bridge – mostly jeweler shops.

We then walked past Palazzo Vecchio and the Uffiizi Museum. It was then on to the Cathedral dl Santa Maria del Flore (Duomo) , with its large domed roof next to its tower and the baptistery. We walked through the Cathedral, with its pink, white and green façade. The building began in 1296 and took 150 year to complete. In the 1500s which continued for centuries, the priest told the congregation how much they were to contribute financially to the church.

We then walked to the Basilica St Lorenzo and Basilica St Maria Novella. On the way we meandered through the maize of streets. At the Pizza St Giovanni, we stopped for a coffee and apple strudel – yum!

We then headed back over the river across one of the numerous bridges to wonder around more of the city and visited the Basilica di St Spirita, Plazzo Pitti

We bought some of Tuscany’s beautiful bread rolls and looked through the wine markets that had been set up on several of the Piazzas – which is yet another lovely feature of the Tuscany Region.

We went back to our motor home ready for the next part of our Tuscany experience.

We drove past the very impressive Forte Belvedere and its long wall is are in excellent condition.

With the sun still shining, we were off to the Martelli Pasta making Factory at Lari.

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