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On the way to Florence we stopped to have some wine tasting in the beautiful Tuscan hills. It was such a peaceful area. Would have been nice to relax in a B&B for a few days! We enjoyed a lesson on how they make Chianti and visited the dungeons of the castle where they store the wine. It was such a pretty vineyard and winery. We then sampled a few wines which were accompanied by delicious cheese, garlicy bread and biscotti ... Yum!! We were pleasantly surprised when we saw the price list - it was really cheap! We brought a couple of bottles (of course). Unfortunately Katia’s (our tour manager) condition had gotten worse and she was taken to hospital. We didn’t really get to say Ciao but last we heard she was doing better but they weren’t really sure what was wrong. Nobody else was sick so it wasn’t contagious luckily. We were all sad to see Katia go 😞. We hope she’s back home now and feeling better.
Our next stop was Florarence where we met our new tour guide Mariangela (Ange for short). We had a quick walking tour to get us oriented and show us
the main sites including the Duomo, the Academia and the Uffizi. We ended up in a very strange karaoke bar. A few of our group belted out some tunes but Richie and I refrained for the sake of everyone’s hearing! There was a guitarist who ripped in massive solo’s to every song! We’ve never heard a shredding solo to a spice girls songs before, truly bizarre and very loud!
The next day we started off with a leather demonstration which was interesting and gave us some good tips on how to spot fake leather. Don’t be fooled by the fire test they do in the markets! Of course after the demo they give you time to shop in their store. We decided to shop around a bit before making any purchases. Next we had a more informative walking tour around the city where we learned a bit more about the Medici family and the history of the beautiful Duomo, the statue of David, the other statues in the piazza della signoria and the Perricoho Bridge. We learnt that this bridge was the only one in town not to be bombed during WWII. Apparently Hitler really liked the bridge and
spared it. It definitely has character and is lined with tempting jewellery shops!
After the tour we had a free afternoon to explore. We walked across the river to the Pitti Palace as we really wanted to have a look through the gardens. We opted not to see them as they were for asking for your first born for entry! Instead we went and booked tickets for the Uffizi and bought Lysh a leather jacket! We shopped and then we shopped until we found the perfect jacket (keep an eye out for it in the photos to come)! After this we went into one of the worlds largest gothic cathedrals, the Duomo. The colours of the marble on the facade were so different to any other cathedral we’ve seen and the painting inside the dome was beautiful. We climbed the tower adjacent to the Duomo and baptistery and took in the great view over the city and to the hills.
That night we took the bus up into the Tuscan hills for dinner, and took a group photo on the way with Florence in the background. We didn’t buy the photo but after seeing it and becoming friends
Piazza della signoria
Notice the David replica at the bottom of the pic with everyone we wish we had. We’ll get a copy from someone we hope 😊. It was a really special dinner with great company, a beautiful view of the hills and a piano playing for us. A little dancing, lots of wine and everyone having a turn with the microphone topped it off! Afterwards we went to Florence’s biggest night club called “Space”. On the way we had a dance off in the aisle of the bus which was crazy but so much fun at the same time! The club was insane and we danced the night away. I’m sure some of you have seen our moves before!
With slightly sore heads we got up the next morning and went to the Uffizi gallery. This really is a world class gallery and gave us a lesson as to what renaissance art is and how the style of paintings changed throughout time. We saw pieces by artists we’d actually heard of(and no, not just because of the ninja turtles!) like Botticelli, Leonard Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael and Filippo Lippi to name a few. Although we’re not avid art fans and probably weren’t in the best state to take it all
in we thoroughly enjoyed the gallery.
We didn’t make it to the Academia and the Bascilica di Santa Croce but would get there in our solo trip to Florence (see Florence part 2 blog, coming soon to a cinema near you)!
In the afternoon after everyone had recovered from the night before (there were a few snoozes in the park) we boarded the bus for Pisa.
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Adam
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Collingwood News
Richard, Guess what? Collingwood and Richmond is on the NEWS. Collingwood and Richmond is going to merge together and form a new team called TigerWoods. They are going to go around and screw all the teams hahahahaahahahahahah!