Good old Italian efficiencies! Had trouble with my non existent train booking and so after much confusion had to buy it onsite. Luckily I got a seat as there was only 1 seat left in my carriage. Got to Florence in the mid afternoon and promptly went to queue 20mins in the blazing heat to see big David (not the Tuaman too). No photo! again and so played hide and seek to sneak 2 shots, had to justify my 10 euros!
Then walked down to the Duoma (a church with a big dome), Batistery, Piazza della Signoria and the Ponte Vecchio.
Some sights are closed today and some tommorrow (Monday), so a bit of back tracking to do in the next few days me thinks.
15/06/09
Decided to have a casual day and visited the stuff that were open which were not many as it was a Monday, Italians love their days off.
Visited the Piazza San Lorenza, climbed 468 steps up the Duomo for some panoramic views of Florence, viewed Piazza Strozzi, Church of Ognissanti (closed), Church of Santa Maria Novelle (did not enter, churched out now), Dante Alighieri's house, Church of Santa Croce (did enter as has tombs of Michaelangelo, Galileo and Dante!) and last but not least hiked up across the Arno river to Piazza Michaelangelo to see a (bronze) copy of David.
As the heat was unbearable had to have a beer from the street stall (no questions about age asked either). Thought I wait for the sunset as really nothing else was open and so escaped into the church of Santa Miniato al Monte where mass was being held in a small partition of the church yet the organ music reverberated nicely throughout the church.
Very serene indeed that you would be hard not to feel a little spiritual of sorts.
Finally with the sun setting across Firenze, walked all the way back to the hostel for a well deserved dinner and to see Italia beat USA in the Confederations Cup, Bravo Italia!
16/06/09
Damn Italian small lanes, got a little lost going to the Uffizi gallery which I have passed many a time in prior days! Got there at 8.30am and the queue was already massive as they only let in so many people in every 20minutes, that meant that I was there for 90mins! Got in and again Non Photo! signs so no pics to show for my effort. Got to see some famous paintings, being the art connoisseur I purchased a guide after the event to get an idea of what I was really looking at. Art can be so complicated...
Second stop of the day was the Medici Chapels, tombs of the leaders of Florence and where Michelangelo scrupled some of his famous creations being Lorenzo with Day and Night, Giuliano with Dusk and Dawn.
Third and last stop was crossing the Arno river to the massive Pitti Palace, long time home of the Medici dynasty. See if you can spot the private passageway that linked the palace to the Uffizi, this allowed them to travel halfway across town without being in public view. Sheer filthy opulence! Ended the day in the Boboli gardens, the (Pitti) palace gardens are massive that I only covered half of it; mind you I sat half the time in the shade escaping the (again) extreme heat and admiring the skyline.
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