We left the heat, pollution and crowds of Rome and headed for the hills! The Tuscan Hills, that is! Along the way, we passed signs for Siena, one of the places that I wish that I had time to see. I graduated from a small college in upstate New York that is named for this town - Siena College! This was not meant to be though and I qickly got over it as we made it to Florence.
Our first stop was to the top of this hill overlooking the city. Here we had a group photo taken that turned out great. Check it out HERE. Although this was not Rome, it was still hot and that wall that we are sitting on in the back row had a metal top - let's just say it was not comfortable to sit on for this photo!
Our next stop was a brief walking tour from the coach to Leonardos Leather Factory. Florence is famous for it's leather goods, and after a short demonstration we took off to tour this great town. Daren had arranged for a local tour guide to meet us and take us around Florence. After a bit of confusion, we finally found her and she took us on a walking tour through the old palace that is now the government offices. We learned about the various sculptures and the rivalry between Michelangelo and the other sculptors of the time.
Our tour continued to the Church of Santa Croce which was one of the most striking churches that I saw. The highlight of this church is "The Duomo" or Dome. It is visible from all over the city and as the photos below show is truely magnificant.
The tour was continuing on to another church, but Jamie and I decided that we would never make it to the gallery where the Statue of David was housed if we went to the other church. We split from the tour and went to the gallery. After waiting in line for around 45 minutes we finally entered the building and made our way to see David. We took several snapshots (see below) and figured that we had had enough!
Finding ourselves in the street we decided to head back to the square near the Duomo. At this point Kiwi was with us and without warning he almost tackled me because he saw a gypsy. He grabbed us and pushed us away shouting GYPSY! at the top of his lungs. Although she did not get us, we watched her in action a few minutes later as she approached some tourists and threw her baby at them. While they are confused and bobbling the baby she picks their pockets!
After the "gypsy show" we found ourselves in the main square again and we saw the golden door (see below). I listened in on a tour guide who was saying that this told 12 seperate biblical stories! It was facinating to look at, but in the mid day heat we needed a break and we soon would find it - An Irish Pub! Just steps away from the Duomo was a quaint little Irish Pub with no-one in it, great air conditioning, cold beer and two English bartenders! Needless to say, we popped a few cold ones and waited out the rest of the afternoon.
We met up with Daren in the late afternoon and he lead us to our hotel. Suffice it to say that this was not one of my favorite hotels - No Air Conditioning! We did have a balcony and that allowed us to get some air circulating in our room.
The evenings activities centered around Dinner in the Tuscan Hills and an evening at a Disco. As we headed off to dinner Daren warned us that although the wine was free, it was strong and that he recommended being careful with it. We had a very enjoyable dinner and several people were even dancing as a band started to play. We only had one casualty that evening - one member of our group did not follow the warning about the wine and became pretty intoxicated.
Once we returned from Dinner we headed to the Disco and spent the night drinking, dancing and doing Karaoke (well, once we got the mic from Janice who thought she was Madonna that nite!). All told, our one night in Florence was quite enjoyable but I was excited to be heading to France tommorow, and in particular to the Riviera - a place I had always wanted to see!
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© 1998-2000 Geoffrey S. Cable
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