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Published: September 24th 2014
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Tuesday September 23, 2014 - Florence
We woke early to head to the Central Market. Jane and Sherry wanted to get an early start on shopping. Sherry scored first with a new Italian purse and followed with a beautiful leather jacket. Not to be out done Jane closed out the day with a stunning red bag.
We met our tour guide for our scheduled tour, walking Renaissance tour. We met our guide at 10:00 am and joined several other people for our tour. We ended up with ten people. You get a set of earphones and a receiver and the our tour leader walks and speaks to us through the headphones. She did a great job of showing us the style and the architecture of the many buildings in Florence. The city was started and controlled by the Medici family. A family that ruled Florence because of their trading skills and military strength. The family had two popes and the daughters were strategically married to control their wealth.
The build up of the tour was our trip to Accademia. Accademia is the home to Michelangelo famous statue "David". It was so interesting
to see the famous sculpture and how he created the masterpiece. You can walk around the whole statue and see numerous views and looks he created from each perspective. The question of David, is the statue showing David looking at Goliath before he throws the stone or after he has knocked him down.
We left Accademia and headed back to the Duomo. We used our 10 euro ticket to tour the catheredal and see the church and the lower level of more discoveries. We then headed back to the piazza della signoia to see the statues and central tower.
Florence is a great city to walk. Fun streets to hike down and to stumble into a small restaurant tucked into a short door. The streets are not as busy as Rome, but you have so much more activity. You will have scooters, bicycles, buses, and small cars all heading down small streets. We saw many families and young people (groups of college students) walking and out to eat. It was very common to see a Mom and her stroller heading down these small streets, and all,of a sudden she hoists the stroller up on
the sidewalk to avoid the bus and finish her texting.
We felt very safe and comfortable. Great shopping and we loved the all the choices of delicious gelato stands.
We finished the day with a stroll down the Arno river walk and back to the Santa Marie Novelle piazza. We stopped at a beautiful parfumerie shop run by a local monastery.
Headed back to the hotel to clean up and make a reservation for supper. We decided on the Hotel Excelsior for supper. We thought it would be a good fit for us, especially since we spend so much time in Excelsior, MN. We arrived for our 7:30 pm reservation and soon realized this was a very, very, very expensive restaurant. We politely paid 7euros for our water and left. Great decision, we found a little sidewalk restaurant Barcon Trattoria. Dan and I each had wonderful plate of spaghetti (very spicy) and the girls split a salad and a plate of spaghetti. A bottle red wine and bottle of water (still) for me.
We headed back to our hotel to pack and get ready to meet our driver in the
morning for our next stop - Cinque Terre, back to the sea for hiking and swimming.
Doug & Sherry and Dan & Jane
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Jim Vitali
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Nice Trip
You guys must be getting tired of walking. Nice pictures and, still, no mention of any bad weather. You must be getting close to the end.