Day 35 - Florence

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After yesterday's adventure and very long day today was planned to be a lot more leisurely. We had breakfast at the hotel, nothing too much to write about but it was included in the room rate and it beats going hungry.

We'd decided to venture on to the hop on/off bus as we'd done previously in Copenhagen, Edinburgh and London. The one in Florence was split in to two routes, line A and line B (very original). Line A started at the main railway station, 5 minute walk from our hotel, and was more concentrated around the old city of Florence took around an hour to do non-stop. Line B was more about the outskirts of the city as well as a run out to Fiesole in the hills to the North of Florence, this route was longer at around 2 hours non-stop.

We headed out on line A and went to a stop called Michelangelo, perched on a hill with a great vista of Florence spread out below you with the River Arno flowing from East to West. We stopped here as the view is stunning and it was also the changing point from line A to line B. Word of warning for the unknowing, the stop for line B is on the opposite side of the road about 100 metres from where you are dropped off on line A. It is shown on the map but you only see that if you take the time to read it.

Plenty of photos later, a cold bottle of water that barely touched the sides and Vicki helped the food van guy we got water from by giving him plenty of change that he was very grateful for. We were off on line B with our plan to come back to the Michelangelo stop as there was a restaurant perched higher on the hill that we planned to have lunch at. Our driver on line B was very talented, not only could she maneuver the bus through the medieval cobble stone streets but she was able to have full on conversations with someone on her mobile phone (that she was holding) and also to the ticket lady once she finished her call. Wayne saw her on numerous occasions clapping her hands in laughter at the stories being changed while driving down the narrow streets. Quite a feat given she hit nothing and was able to drive smoothly throughout.

Like we said the line B bus took us out of Florence to Fiesole a medieval town that was once the capital of Tuscany until Florence had a war with Fiesole which basically destroyed Fiesole. The people of Florence then came and took a lot of the building materials from the defeated town and built buildings with this material. Fiesole was also heavily quarried to further create building stones for Florence. Fiesole is now more like a village with an open courtyard that was being used for a street market. We had around 15 or 20 minutes at Fiesole to hop off the bus and explore, we bought some bread and olive oil as we were meeting Deb and Mary at our hotel for a drink prior to dinner (more about that soon).

Back on the bus and we headed off for the remainder of the drive on the line B bus and back to Michelangelo Square to try the restaurant we'd seen earlier. When we walked in it was pretty obvious that Summer tourist clothes were not the normal dress codes but we still managed to get a table at the edge with an amazing view over Florence. Lunch was as spectacular as the views. Vicki's duck 3 ways thinks it is one of the best meals she has ever eaten, not exactly one of Wayne's lamb roasts mind you. Wayne's veal Osso Bucco and mushrooms was also really good. We didn't have dessert as it was already nearly 3pm and we had dinner locked in for 6pm.

We then stood in the hot sun for what felt like an eternity waiting for the next bus. The temperature was already around 35C and it was bright and sunny, which is basically the weather we've experienced the whole trip. The bus ride back was packed, with people actually being turned away and told to wait as by law everyone must be seated on the hop on/off bus. We got back to the station around 4:30pm and back to our hotel shortly after, stopping Enroute for a bandage for Wayne's calf, cash from the ATM and also to make sure we had a booking at Lobs our seafood restaurant we went to on night one in Florence.

Quick shower to freshen up and we were off to meet our special guests for dinner but not before we drank Prosecco from plastic cups with ice cubes, very classy! We then headed off to dinner with the three ladies giggling away and Wayne hobbling along with his sore calf. It is always a concern when you recommend a place and go there with friends, but there were no such concerns with the team at Lobs. They greeted us like we ate there every week and the four of us picked up where we'd left off with tons of conservation and even more laughter. The food was nearly as good as the company and the service wasn't too far behind either.

We settled our account and left a nice tip for the team at Lobs. On leaving they ushered us to their VIP lounge at an adjacent hotel's rooftop. The views were just stunning and seeing Florence at night put a whole new angle on this beautiful city. With the Duomo so close you could almost reach out and touch it and next to it was a fullish Moon that Vicki captured really well with her phone. We enjoyed a round of drinks on the rooftop but as it was now nearly midnight we went downstairs for Deb and Mary to get a taxi and bid them a fond farewell and told them that we'll see them in Australia really soon.

Back to the hotel we went and crashed in bed, packing for our trip to Rome can wait till tomorrow.

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