Florence..so beautiful

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Ciao!!

We heard a rumour that the weather has been 30 degrees at home, hope everyone is out and about enjoying it!

Bit of news: Andrew and I have decided that we could live here (especially Florence), so we might change our flights home...(we wish).

Arriving in Florence was a bit of a shock, our Hotel was located in a bit of a Housing Commission area, with a few interesting looking characters, but once you were inside, you had no idea. New hotel, with nice room etc.

When we arrived in Florence it was raining, so we decided to go and do some washing at the Laundromat instead of getting wet outside. (only real piece of housework have had to do in 4 weeks - loving it)!. To amuse ourselves when doing washing, we brought along the Phase 10 Cards to play (they are a well travelled pack of cards). So far we are Andrew 2, Me 1.. wonder what the score will be at the end of the trip.

Tuesday Morning we woke up too blue sky and sunshine, Florence really turned on the weather for us! We were lucky in that the bus stop was right outside the hotel and took us straight into the centre of Florence. We had booked a walking tour for Tuesday Afternoon, so we had the morning/afternoon to ourselves. We walked around the alleyways and sat down to have afternoon tea (yummiest Cannoli I have ever had) and of course, because we sat down everything was double the price.. got to love Europe.

Anyhow, we met Adriana our tour guide at 4, and she walked us around Florence, telling us about the history, showing us sights that you just wouldn't see if someone didn't tell you. She told us about the war, about the terrible mafia attack that happened and a flood that happened in the 1960's, where most of the Florentines lost nearly everything. The water came in overnight and no one had any warning.

The highlight of the tour and Florence, was seeing the statue of David. It is amazing and something that will stay with you forever. Adriana explained a lot about Michelangelo, the fact he was only 5 foot 3 and that the David statue is 15 feet high. Would have been so hard to create.

She also took us to a place where they do Stone Carvings, they get big blocks of stone and then use old fashioned tools to carve pictures into the stone. Hard to imagine/describe, but they are amazing!



Adriana also took us for gelato, to a bar where they make the gelato fresh everyday..so good. When we finished the tour, she took us to one of her favourite restaurants near where we needed to catch the bus. I had lasagne and Andrew had pork steaks, then to top it off Tiramisu for dinner..Yummm, but not surprised that my jeans are feeling a little tighter than they did when we left 😉.



Today, we woke up, packed (getting over that - next time Europe is in a motorhome), and then headed to Roma!!! After Adriana's amazing tour, she provided us with names of tour guides here in Rome. We have booked in for a full day tour with Daniel on Saturday (for an astronomical price), but hey, you only do it once they say....Hopefully we will get to see nearly everything in Rome on Saturday.

Before I forget though, tomorrow night we have booked in for a Segway tour of Rome....will be interesting to see what it will be like. Fingers crossed all fun and no rain!!! Two and a half hours on a contraption that is going to wheel me around!!!

Fingers crossed, our first package home is on its way,, all 4.5 kilos of it.. Wow, do the postal service know how to charge here.. Paul, I think Australia Post need to send someone over to Italy, to do research (for 12 months) into the Italian Postal system. Andrew would like to apply for this role and of course he will need an assistant, so I am happy to fill that role 😊.



Ciao for now!

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