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Published: June 18th 2011
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From Spoleto to Florence
We felt sad about leaving Spoleto as we had had such a wonderful time. Our host Ludovico was a delight as he was good company and enjoyed sharing his knowledge of the area, places to go, places to eat.
We headed off towards Florence and for the first time since Venice it rained. We did a detour into Siena on the way. Apparently there is great rivalry between Florence and Siena and it is easy to see why. The are both quite similar in the style of their buildings especially their cathedrals. They had a very similar history as well. Siena is on top of a hill, well the main part of the city and it has a wall around it, and florence is has a river running through it. To get into the centre of Siena you go up 5 escalators. It certainly saves climbing all those stairs. It must have been graduating day for lots of students as they were wearing wreaths in their hair and carrying large bunches of flowers and having lots of photos taken.
As the rain fell we headed off to Florence. The main road was one of the worst I
have driven on. It was so rough! However they did appear to be fixing it in parts. We arrived in Florence at rush hour. Once again we managed to negotiate the traffic. We are getting quite good now. You really can't sit and wait for a break in the traffic you have to just push your way in, grit your teeth and hope you don't hit anyone or they hit you.
Our hotel though rather old and tired was only a 15 minute walk from the centre of Florence and we had car parking which in all these Italian cities is very handy because it is practically impossible to find anywhere to park. As soon as we got to Florence there was a thunderstorm and it just poured with rain. It wasn't at all cold so we headed off to have a quick explore. Because of the rain there were not very many people about.
Florence is one of those cities where there is not one straight street and they are all very narrow and it is hard to see where you are. We spent a lot of time walking around only to find ourselves back to where we started
Siena
These light fitting in the streets just didn't seem to go with the rest of the town. they were plastic as well. from. The cobbled streets make to hard to walk on when it had rained as nothing is level so you had to be careful where you walk or just get wet feet.
Our first day we spent visiting all the major attractions. One being the Duomo or cathedral. Its dome dominates the skyline. It is huge inside but really looks like a museum inside. The most fascinating part in underneath the cathedral as you can see the original church that it had been built on. Underneath lie the ruins of a cathedral built by the romans. Also bones of a couple of people. They were kept away at the side and were in the dark, but the skills were very much visible. In the cathedral looking up towards the top of the dome is quite breath taking. How they ever managed to build these domes is quite beyond me. You can climb right up to the top.
After the cathedral we wandered the very narrow streets to find coffee. We came across a small but busy place on a corner run by a one man band. He made fantastic coffee and the best custard doughnuts I've ever tasted but clearly
had a problem coping with the dishes. He kept having a swig from the top shelf to keep himself going. We tried to find the coffee shop again the next day with no luck. It was very easy to get yourself lost as the streets in central Florence are very narrow and none of them run in a straight line, they are all slightly curved so you never end up where you think you are.
We decided to tackle the markets which seem to stretch for miles down narrow streets. As we were wandering amongst the hundreds of handbags and scarves we came across the big indoor produce market. There was such a huge line for the fresh lamb roles we decided to come back after a look around the rest of the stalls. Sadly by the time we made it back it was closed and the next day we were too late again. Yes, that big problem of Italians closing up for a couple of hours over the lunchtime.
The Ponte Vecchio Bridge is one of the main bridges in Florence. The first of many bridges here was built by the Romans. Today as it was hundreds of years
ago it is the home of Gold and Silversmith shops. I'm glad I wasn't in the market for gold jewelry as there was far too many shops and far to much to choose from. Now it is just a foot bridge.
The statues around Florence are just amazing. In Piazza dela Signoria are some very famous statues. One is an exact copy of Michelangelo's David and other stunning statues by some very famous artists. Some of the statues were from the Uffizi Gallery and museum and indeed where they were situated was considered to be part of the museum. It was a great place to sit and have coffee, especially when the sun came out as both days there was very heavy rain and the thunder and lightning just rolled around the city.
The next morning it was quite fine and remained that way all morning. We walked up to the Michelangelo Park which up on top of a hill. The views from here were stunning.
We completed our day with some serious shopping in the markets. A few mistakes but a couple of good buys, well we pleased with our jackets. There were so many stalls and it was
Siena.
This is the cathedral in Siena which is the same style as the one in Florence difficult to choose. In fact I bought a jacket and then took it back as swopped it for another one.
We visited the Uffizi Gallery which just has the most stunning collection of painting and statues that it was difficult to take it all in. We had three hours to look through the top floor of the gallery. We were lucky as most only have two hours. Art work from all the famous names in art history were on display.
We headed back to the hotel to pick up our car as we were now off to La Spezia to visit the Cinque Terra, the famous five villages on the coast. We are nearly at the end of our journey.
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