Florence By Day

 Early up again (I’m so not used to these early mornings) to get the train up to Florence.  Very easy journey.  Cab got to the hotel before the concierge had put the phone down.  An easy wizz around Rome to the station. The platform number popped up on the screen as we started looking for it and the platform was found with ease.  They even tell you where to stand for your carriage.....and we just got on.  The train was pretty empty, so had seats to ourselves - happy happy.  Lu even got some accidental free wifi - win win.

There was a nun on the train and as we were boarding she was putting her backpack up on the rack above the seat.  I immediately rushed to her aid and asked her if she would like some help.  She, being Italian, turned to me and replied quizzically, “You want me to help you?” “No, no”, I said quickly, “I will help you.”  She looked up at her bag which was already in place and then looked back at me and said, “No.”  I thought I was doing a good deed until I turned at looked at Lu who was laughing and said, “I thought you were going to wrestle her bag away from her.”  I’m always ready to help!

Once we hit Florence, we headed straight for the Statue of David.  Now this might be an embarrassing statement to make, but I never knew that David was the same David as in the story of David and Goliath!  So it was a realisation when we read about the statue and how Michaelangelo chose to not put Goliath’s head under his foot as other artists had done previously.  It also made sense that he had a sling shot over his shoulder and a rock hidden in his hand.  It only occurred to me once we were there that I'd never seen the back of the statue before.  The statue is huge. Standing at 5 and a bit metres tall.  Creepily, his hands and feet are disproportionately bigger than they should be.... but I’m no artist, maybe they are symbolic of something else?  It certainly didn’t follow the usual rule about gentleman with big feet! ;-)

This is the replica statue that is in another piazza in Florence, in fact, there are replicas all over the place.  The original is inside and you’re not allowed to take photos.

Florence runs at a much slower pace than Roma and there are lots of elderly people just getting about their business.  Here are a couple of gorgeous old people we came across.  This first lady was in her tights - it was about 39 degrees and these gentlemen were feeding the pigeons.

This massive building is smack in the centre of Florence.  It is one of the most mesmerizing pieces of architecture that I think I’ve seen.  The line to get in almost went around the entire building and people were happy to stand in the blazing heat to get in there.... but not us, we went in search of Vivoli Il Gelato - the best Gelato in Florence, accordingly to Tripadvisor.  Apparently this place has been around since the 1930’s and the owner has his own dairy specifically to make traditional gelato.

Lu went on A Taste of Italy before I joined her and she learned all sorts of interesting facts about Italian food, including how you can tell if gelato is real and made traditionally or fake and mass produced.  So a we perused the streets, we became experts at picking the real thing without even stopping.  “It’s too puffy! - Fake”, “Pastacio is never green- Fake!”  We may never eat Gelato again if we can’t find a real one!  She also learned that it is against the law to not offer cream (panna) with gelato - we nearly had to call the police once.  And also that you are not allowed to start cooking woodfired pizzas until 7pm, anything served before that is obviously not traditionally woodfired.  It’s illegal!

Everyone loves the Gelato!

Random Florenzian/Venician graffiti 

This is the Ponte Vecchio which is a bridge full of jewellery shops.  Apparently the shops used to be butchers but the king (?) decided that he didn't like the smell so he moved them all.

The view from the top of the bridge

After a long day wandering the streets of Florence, it was back to the train station for us... Destination: Venice.d