12 August-Florence

Florence
Uffizzi Gallery
Cathedral-Florence

Dallas-Ponte Vecchio, Florence
Cathedral tower-Florence

Florence

Florence

Ponte Vecchio
David in Galleria dell Accademia-Florence

Florence

12 August (Florence)

We left relatively early this morning for Florence and found our way quite easily into the city and parking by the Porta Roma. We were parked about a kilometre from the Ponte Vecchio and a short walk from there into the centre of town.

We had expected there to be lots of tourists, but I was not quite prepared for the deluge that hit us as soon as we entered the Piazza Signora. We found the information centre, only to be told that we were most unlikely to be able to get tickets for the same day to see the “David” or the Uffizi Gallery. However, we went to the ticket office and found that we could actually get tickets for both that day, but later in the day.

Having sorted this out, we found a cafe for a strong coffee and a bite to eat. We had an interesting conversation with two young Italian men (30s), who at first thought I was gesturing anxiously to the waiter to get some service. He was bemused by this and told us to “slow down, slow down, it has taken us 4000 years to get here, it takes time…” In fact I was gesturing to Dallas our table number as she was paying the bano. But we had an interesting conversation with them, Philippe and Christiane. Philippe had been to NZ and Australia (a designer), and Christiane to Australia. Christiane wanted to know if Maoris were alcoholic drunks like the aborigine. It was pleasing that we could leave him with a more correct and positive view of Maori in NZ.

We separated from Leigh and Maurie until 1.00pm at which time we had tickets to the Galleria dell’ Academia (mainly to see Michelangelo’s David, for the second time in our case). Until then we wandered through few of the streets, and towards the Ponte Vecchio. Again, the crowds of tourists on the bridge made this not such a pleasant place to be so we crossed over and had a look through a few shops, where Dallas bought a couple of Italia t-shirts for the boys.

We then went to a nearby leather market where Dallas bought a leather bag. The stallholders would haggle about price, but only within a small range. After the Academia we all wandered about for a bit, then went to an internet café. This one was rather expensive, so we stayed on for only a 15 minute session and attended to our respective inboxes just briefly – then we found that just a couple of doors down the road was a second internet café, which cost less for an entire hour, and the bonus was that it was air-conditioned, so we had a welcome break there in the cool and spent longer on the emails. Our booked time for the Uffizi Gallery was 5.15pm, so we met up again there, and after a short wait were allowed in. Some of the paintings and sculptures were awe-inspiring, though we all felt a bit jaded by this stage of the day (and week). Our meet-up arrangements later on went somewhat awry when Dallas thought she’d come out at a different entrance to the main one, hence she spent ¾ hour waiting for us around the front while the rest of us waited round the back. Maurie and Leigh moved on to get something to eat. After I finally tried looking around the front of the vast building and located Dallas, we walked back across the river and to the car, meeting up with M & L at a park near the parking area. We drove back to Radicondoli (about an hour and a half’s drive), and picked up some delicious pizzas for dinner at the local restaurant we’d visited a few nights’ earlier.