Florence

Arno river, Florence

We left our campsite, The Oaks, near Valle, halfway between Bologna and Florence by 9.30 am.

Jon had told us of a site outside of Florence where he had stayed with his family.  We pulled into a McDonalds to check it out, and to phone ahead.  They were open and had space.

We headed off there.

Down winding roads and beautiful scenery, to the motorway, autoroute, peage, or whatever they call them here.  90 minutes later and we were on site, with the kettle on, getting ready to go to Florence.

We could have had a lift from the camp shuttle service into Fiesole, but that didn’t run until 2 pm.  We were ready soon after 1200.  So we walked.  Walked the 1200 metres down into Fiesole along roads with no pavements (a very dangerous pastime for the English in Italy).

A bus ticket from the machine for 1.5 Euros each got us into Florence 30 minutes later.  No problemo!

Stopped at the Tourist Information Office straight away, and were given some excellent advice on what to do, considering the time we had available.

A walk round any city is tiring, but rewarding.  One sees things that would not be possible in a car.  We were able to absorb the atmosphere and enjoy our surroundings.

That is until the heavens opened and poured forth buckets of rain on us as we were waiting in the queue to go inside the Cathedral of Saint Maria del Fiore.  We were just at the head of the queue after waiting 20 minutes to enter.  We just got inside before we got too wet.

No as ornate or as extravagant as St Marks in Venice, but jolly nice all the same.  We were inside for about 10 minutes.  That was long enough.

Then out, for a cup of coffee before continuing our tour.

The next part of the tour took us to Piazza della Signoria, where an enormous statue of David without any clothes on was pouring water out of his rectum, and out of his ****** (bleep).  They seemed obsessed with willies here, and nearly every statue seemed intent on giving a full frontal view of them.  

The police here wear white coppers helmets.  They didn't seem very alert or busy!

The army too, out in force.

The reason they look relaxed is because they all have guns, and we don’t!

Not busy

Not busy

Not very busy

Not busy

Not busy

We were thankful that they were not busy!

The artists were all trying to sell their pictures in the Galleria degli Uffizi area.  At the end of this, was the Arno river.  Turning Right here we were soon at Ponte Vecchio.  

We didn’t realise that the whole of the bridge is basically shops that sell expensive gold and jewellery!  I couldn’t see an ice-cream shop anywhere!

We had to wait until we were off the bridge to find an ice-cream shop.  

A bit pricey, if you ask me.  6 Euros for an ice-cream seemed a lot to me.  So we re-traced our steps, as it was time to go back to Fiesole.

Other sights were

Hare Krisna

The JWs were out again!   Chatting away to themselves.

Busker accordion player.  Ruth thought that it looks like Ruth’s mum’s typewriter if you turned it on its side!

A McDonalds opposite the bus stop hit the spot, and I was grateful for a McFlurry instead.

A great day (or afternoon) in Florence!

The bus took 30 minute to climb back up to Fiesole.  Then it took us another 30 minutes to climb the 1200 metres back to our campsite.  If you think that’s a bit slow, I challenge you to do it significantly quicker.  (I am 65 years old now you know)!