Florence

July 12 - 13, 2017

So got up early (early being 9 pm, midnight, 3 am and then 6:30 am) but actually dragged my butt out of bed around 7:30 am. Had a fantastic breakfast consisting of the fluffiest eggs I've ever had, some fantastic cheeses and cured meats (yes they were pork) and orange juice that would put both California and Florida to shame. I topped this off with three cups of great Italian coffee. Sheryl had the same but no meat or coffee (if she only knew what she was missing out on).

Italy of course has the best Italian food and to counter the effects of eating it we decided walking was going to be our means of transportation. And walk we did. Our hotel is about 20 minutes from the centre of the old town of Florence.

One thing you notice in Florence is that almost everyone has a scooter as their means of transportation. You almost wonder if there are scooter gangs in Florence. Parking is at a premium so these bikes park with maybe an inch you two of clearance on each side

If only the members of the Fukawi Motorcycle Club could park with such precision

 Our first stop was at a ticket station where we purchased a Florenze Card. The benefit of this card is you get to bypass all the long lines of people trying to get into the various museums and exhibits.

With our Florence card in hand we headed to the Galaleio Museum which opened at 9:30 am. We arrived at 9:29 am, just as they were opening the doors and we're the 10th and 11th guest to enter (ok so no long line up here). The museum was very interesting and of course highlighted all the inventions and theories of Galaleio.

Galaleio and me deep in thought

Sheryl checking out all the various telescopes

I guess this is what the Apple Watch would have looked like back then

From there we headed to the Dante Museum. Dante was a poet who wrote "The Devine Comedy" which wasn't a comedy, but was about what Hell was like and was the basis for Dan Brown's novel "The Inferno".

Dante's death mask (sorry about the lighting) I guess we have Robert Langdon to thank for it's return to this museum (read the book or watch the movie people)

And yes there was no line up here either.

We then went to the Galleria Accademia which did have a long lineup that we got to skip. Florence has a lot of statues of The David, but only one is the original created by Michelangelo and it resides here.  I’m sure everyone recognizes this sculpture

But I thought I would approach it from a different angle

The south side of The David facing north. 

I’m not sure what it is that has Italians fascinated about the male genatalia but there sure are a lot of sculptures of men’s private parts all over this city. Decorum prevents me from posting the multitude of statues we saw

We also hiked up the hill to the Piazzale Michelangelo where we had a birds eye view of the city

According to my Apple Watch we walked/hiked a total of 12 Kms on our first day (uphill both ways in 35 degree heat) which was more than enough. A little rest back at the hotel was in order.

By the way, we were very happy with our accommodations and would highly recommend our hotel to anyone visiting Florence. The name and address is;

NH FIRENZE

Piazza Vittorio Veneto 4A

Florence , Italy

50123

Phone 108697918 

It is about 5 Kms from the airport and 1/2 km from the train station and only a 20 minute walk to the centre of old Florence.

Day two had us enjoying another great breakfast followed by a stroll to and through the Uffizi. Here we saw masterpieces by Michelangelo, Leonardo and many other grand masters of the time. 

We also saw this little shop along the way that sold nothing but rubber ducks

Only in Italy I guess

We then jumped on the Hop on Hop off bus and rode through the rest of Florence and off to a small town called Fiesole. This town's claim to fame is it's early roots dating back to the 9th century BC. In 283 BC this town was conquered by the Roman's and much of those remains are still present here.

No more Gladiator fights but they still hold concerts here

After this we went back to the hotel for dinner and then watched a great sunset (well Sheryl watched it, I was downstairs paying for dinner). Tomorrow we head for Venice.