Fear ion Florence, Terror in Tuscany

It is with a certain degree of trepidation, but also with pridee that the Gorse Fox reveals that so far today there have been no mishaps, losses, misplacements, or moments of forgetfulness (as far as he can remember).

An eraly alarm got us up and about. We had to have breakfast and walk across town to the offices of a small tour company who conduct tours of the City using native English guides. Well, that’s what the literature said. Actually our guide wasn’t English, she was Florentine, but her English was excellent and gave us no trouble. For sure.

We visited most of the well known sites and had an intriguing commentary on the Piazzas, the Palaces, the Cathedrals, the Bridges and so forth. What quickly became abundantly clear was how wealthy Florence had been during the Middle Ages, and how that wealth has created the foundations of what we see today.

 

 

 

 

 

One thing that you quickly notice is the statuary that adorns every niche or open space. You also notice that many of these statues are in various states of undress. This caught Betty Rubble’s eye and she spent an inordinate amount of time examining the bottoms of the men in marble. Her excuse was artistic research, but GF suspects it goes deeper than that. The sites were really quite stunning and hopefully the attached pictures will give you some inkling of the day.

 

 

 

One of the last stops was the famous Ponte Vecchio which despite heaving with tourist still maintained a certain charm.

 

 

 

 

From there we headed for the Duome and finished in the Cathedral with an explanation of its history and the problems of building such a large dome.

After the tour finished we stopped off at a street cafe for some lunch. The Gorse Fox continued to clutch his rucksack throughout the meal. His phone remained securely in his pocket and he refused to handle anything but the meal. He was taking no chances.

 

 

 

After lunch we headed back towards the River and the bridges and after some photos moved on to the Caste Pitti and the Boboli Gardens. We spent and hour or two wandering around the gardens, looking at the views and enjoying the calm of the open spaces after the bustle of the city. Finally we stopped for some tea before heading back towards the river, the ice cream shop and stroll back to the hotel.