Monday today. Ian is back at school having fun with his printing processes. On Saturday after getting back from Fiesole we watched the wedding which has made me a day behind in my blog, so hopefully I can catch up on tonight. Bev and I set out early for the Palazzo Vecchio, the Old Palace. This is the huge forbidding crenellated building in Piazza del Signoria (signoria means city government) next to the Uffizi. The sky was blue and sunny. We got our tickets no problem and then had an intelligence test as to how to actually get into the building which we failed miserably. We were told to turn left. Saw the facilities, cloakroom, toilets etc. That was not it. So we went down a walkway on the left into a courtyard. Hmm. Offices. Not ... read more

We got our money’s worth on our bus tickets today. They’re really good, working on time not distance, i.e. it doesn’t matter how many buses you go on as long as your trip is within 90 mins. So we could catch the city bus to San Marco Piazza and then the No. 7 up in the hills to Fiesole which only takes about 25 minutes. We tried to get a taxi to San Marco Piazza as it on the other side of the city to the north. But that failed. Taxis cannot be hailed as every one that goes into the city limits is ordered. We thought it would be a good test when we need taxis to go to the airport (Bev) and train station (I & J) in a fortnight when we leave. The ... read more

This Palazzo was built on what were the outer limits of the medieval city as the Corsini family’s weekend retreat. Hence it has extensive gardens still used and visited today. We were lucky that our visit to Florence coincided with the annual four day Artisan festival. Former stables and out buildings house local artisans working at their craft. Jewellers, silver smiths, wood turners, glass makers, shoemakers, potters, designers of all sorts show off their wares. The sun shone and it was quite warm in the beautiful formal gardens filled with the scent of the flowering Linden trees and stylish Florentines, both men and women. Tonight we’re going to the opening of an exhibition of Australian (!) prints at a gallery along near Il Bisonte. It opens at 6pm. The guy said “This is Italy. Don’t come ... read more

As I write this, at 5.30pm, the bells from our local church Santa Felicita, about 20 metres away, are ringing, reminding us of how close we are to everything in Florence. Our apartment is hidden away behind a large arched doorway, through a sort of garage housing a Fiat Bambina covered in the Italian flag, and into our private courtyard. It is so quiet we forget about the hustle and bustle of the street outside. We are well settled in for our nearly 3 week stay. We’ve stocked up from the supermarket just round the corner, the phone has a local SIM card, the bus pass is purchased as are our tickets for the garden festival at Palazzo Corsini al Prato, as well as our Friends of the Uffizzi card which will get us into, at ... read more

Yesterday was a fun day with all sorts of activities at the Bamboo Centre to show the many ways bamboo is used in Laotian culture. We got a few tips for what we could do with the bamboo hedge at the beach! Traditional houses have walls of woven bamboo. It’s incredible how finely it can be cut into strips with a machete. We had a go at weaving a coaster but drew the line at a frog which was much more complicated. We failed at walking, let alone running and galloping, on bamboo stilts which are used to walk with during the wet season. The best part was the cooking class where we made fish steamed in banana leaves and bamboo shoots stuffed with minced pork. Both were mixed with herbs and spices such as such ... read more