On to Florence!

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Geo: 41.8966, 12.477

Well somehow we made it to Termini Stazione, I do remember we got on the bus going the wrong way... but that was par for the course by this time so were prepared with "mistake" time built into the schedule, I highly recommend adding time to your schedule so you can take some accidental "detours" it's highly educational ;-)

We eventually found the correct train track, I learned that you look for the end of the line stop for the train you are going on (just like the Metro) instead of just the stop you are making. I didn't realize that the train to Florence was going on farther (I think it was Milan) so we asked at the info desk and they helped us out. They also don't put the train number up on the board till quite close to its arrival, so note for next time is to make sure I know where the train is finally going to end up at after our stop...

Made it to Florence, we got on a bus, got off not far from the Academia and walked there, got in line to see "David" and the rest of the museum. David is amazing, perfect, I can see why everyone is so impressed with this work of art. Definitely worth seeing! we then walked on down and ate in the Piazza del Duomo facing the St of Academia, we brought sandwiches from the apt. Walked around the piazza and then went into the Chiesa del Duomo, looked at Ghiberti's famous doors on the Baptistry, it was great to see these things we had studied during our year of Renaissance and Reformation history..... Walked down via Calzarioli to the Piazza della Signoria, enjoyed the logia with all the great statues. They were really enforcing the no eating rule and kicked someone off for having a gelato there. We were able to go into the Palazzo Vecchio's courtyard as it is free to visitors. This was the seat of power during the Renaissance for many years, wonderful to see. Right on the other side on the Via Leoni I saw a great purse for 130 euros a Valentina, red "crocodile" with black running through it, never made it back... never saw another purse just like it, also didn't spend 130 euros on a purse ;-)

Found the Arno River and walked along that to Ponte Vecchio, looked at all the gold, wow! mom took a serious look at some cameos but didn't buy. Went onto Piazza del Pitti, didn't go in, sat for a while then took a detour down via Toscarella to Borgo Sant Jacopo, grabbed a gelato back in here that had a recommended by TripAdvisor sign on it, very good, several of us used the pay bathrooms down the street from here. So interesting all the cultural differences, not used to paying for bathroom use....

We just made a circle and ended up back at Ponte Vecchio as we only had the day here we weren't really doing much with the "sites" just enjoying walking and seeing the city, here we went into a "leather factory", I tried on a beautiful red leather jacket and dad ended up buying a very nice brown leather jacket.. We now went back over the bridge and walked up via por S. Maria to Calimola ? stopped at the market at the Plazza della Republica (I think it was here anyway!) some good buys here, but some not so good, it was hard to tell so I didn't buy anything..

Ate dinner at a pizza place near the Duomo, ate in the basement where everyone from around the world signs their names on the wall, fun to read.

We then walked up to the market next to the Medici Chapel, Piazza San Lorenzo, had a wonderful sales pitch on the differences between the purses for sale, the guy came down to 130 euros for a supposedly 390 euro purse! The sales pitch was a highlight for the boys, it was quite a show!

At this point in the game I really couldn't make up my mind about any of the purses I'd seen, so ended up not buying anything, the same thing that happened in Venice! oh well, I'll just have to go again to try to find one ;-)

We sat for a few minutes on the steps of Lan Lorenzo then walked upVia del Melarancio
to the train station right around the corner. We waited for the train in the McDonalds, had a pop, water, and milkshake. Small pop 2,20 euro (no refills), water 1 euro, milkshake 1 euro. The milkshake was nothing like the ones here, they had ordered chocolate and it really didn't taste chocolatey and the texture was different....

Got back to Roma about 10:15 pm, we took the #40 bus back to Largo Torre Argentina, mom and dad grabbed a taxi and we ended up at the apt at the same time. Everyone exhausted....

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