Firenze

Today we walked Florence. Did and saw all we could with today, our crash course in Florence. It was at the heart of the Renaissance, and many lived here and overlapping lives some how. Leaonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, a few popes, and so on. Anyways there were lots of people that were in statues that did a significant thing and it resulted in another thing. Haha, alright well I remember a little more then that, but oh well. 

We did a walking tour of Florence from, you guessed it, Rick Steves. Always informative and interesting to listen to, especially when we only have a day to see it all.

 

Our tour started at the baptistery, right next to the Duomo. Both impressive buildings. Made it with green striped, pink and white marble. 

 

The Duomo, an incredible looking building that is a little confusing to adjust your eyes to at first. But big and beautiful.

 

From there we walked to the Palazzo Vecchio. Or old palace, where we were able to go into the front main courtyard, but that was all as you had to buy tickets, and we didn't. 

 

In that square there a number of interesting statues, the golden turtle being my favourite. There was also a replica of the statue of David. Which due to it being Monday, we weren't able to see, but hey it's a replica so it pretty has to look the same. Neat to see though.

 

Then we made our way to the Arno river, where the Ponte Vecchio stands. Here we concluded our walking tour. It is a weird bridge that is now just full. Of little shops along the bridge. But I guess a must see for Florence. 

 

Along our wandering we came across a number of neat sculptures, and a cool little water fountain thing with a balcony.

 

It was a warm day today so naturally we needed to cool off with some gelato. It was delicious!!!! I am a sucker for lemon always, as I have mentioned, but is time I paired it with peach and strawberry. Mm so refreshing! 

 

We ended our wondering by headed to the old city wall. Many cities seem to have these. Where we walked along it back to the river. Was a pretty cool thing to see.

 

Florence was a neat little place. I must say I feel we saw everything we possibly could see. We had to go back to the same restaurant for dinner so that more garlic bread of yumminess, could be indulged in. I was certainly alright with that. Luke even enjoyed it this time. I am certainly gonna need some good ole Ukrainian food and flavours when I am home. I am certainly missing that. *hint hint wink wink nudge nudge**

The pillow situation last night was a tricky one. At 7 am I ended up grabbing the pillow and gave in. Not sure if that was a good thing or not, but no pillow was the solution for most of the night. Our hosts here, dot really speak English and had a bickering match this morning, or at least it sounded like bickering, with some guests about payment. Was a rather awkward thing to walk through. We also think we are the ones staying in their house, which is fine just a little funny. 

Tomorrow we will head to Rome via Siena. Looking forward to that for sure! The weather is certainly holding up and we are thankful for that. The best we are fine with, yes even Luke believe it or not, but the humidity we aren't fans of, mainly what we experienced in Venice. But made for good stories. 

And so the adventure continues...