FLORENCE

Florence - a city like no other.  Unlike Rome, which is quite spread out, Florence is very intimate with a small town feel.  It is easy to walk the whole of the city with no need for public transportation.  One of the aspects we particularly enjoyed were the many fruit and vegetable markets.  Some of the best fruit we've had on the whole trip.

This one was right around the corner from the "Italy by Segway" Tours.






The Livermore Glascos had taken a segway tour in Rome and thought it was fantastic so we all put our helmets on and went off to explore Florence.  Not only was it a great way to get an overview of the city but we ended up being one of the sights for all the other tourists!  We turned a lot of heads.











The architecture in this part of Italy is, in my mind, some of the most beautiful I've ever seen.  The facades of most of the churches and major buildings, including the Duomo and Clocktower here in Florence, are covered with white, pink and green marble.  The result is stunning.











But there's more to Florence than the religious buildings.  Here are the grandkids in front of the famous Ponte Vecchio.  This is the only bridge in Florence that wasn't blown up by the Germans in WWII.  





It is thought that Hitler fell in love with it when visiting Florence and instructed the troops to spare it when blowing up all the other bridges to hold back the allied troops.  It has a long history and connects the Uffizi with the Pitti Palace on the other side of the Arno.  It used to house butchers but the Medici didn't want to have to deal with the smell when traveling between their two palaces so they kicked the butchers out and installed jewelers who still sell their wares today, 1,000 years after it was first constructed.


 And, speaking of the Uffizi, here is a shot of one of the famous corridors in the Uffizi.  As you can see, we again beat the crowds as we were there very early with our guide, Cindy.  The ceiling of this corridor not only depicts all the artists, philosophers, scientists, writers, etc, etc of the time but along the top of the walls are paintings - a "Who's Who" of the leaders of the world in the 15th Century.  And, they've been hanging in the same spot since the 15th Century!  Quite mind boggling.

The Uffizi is truly unique in the world of art museums as it tells the history of art through the ages.  

After the Uffizi we went to see The David at the Accademie.  It was a great way to end our fabulous tour of the museum and our day with Cindy.





 That evening we hopped over to the other side of the Arno to take in the Basilica di San Miniato.  Cindy told us that at 5:00 in the evening the monks sing Gregorian Chants during Vespers.  We couldn't miss that!  









The church itself was a jewel - again that white, pink and green marble inside and out.



Unfortunately for us, it was Saturday night and instead of Vespers we heard the start of Mass.  Beautiful but not quite what we had come to hear.

But between the beautiful architecture and the stunning view over the Arno to the main part of Florence we couldn't complain.

The Livermore Glascos had taken off for a few days in Switzerland where they crawled around in ice caves and did some paragliding off the mountains so it was just Madelyn and us for the remainder of our time in Florence.

We spent our last two days taking a couple of day trips.  First to Siena with its famous "square" (really a half circle).  They were getting ready for the annual horse race that takes place in the Square.  We thankfully missed it by a week but were able to see all the preparations that had been done.

We thoroughly enjoyed just meandering around town taking it all in.



And, yes, there was more of that white, pink and green marble as you can see on the picture of the church below.

Our last day in Tuscany we drove to San Gimignano and along the way I finally got a picture of the smiling sun flowers.  We had been driving through these brightly colored, happy fields ever since entering Italy but I was never able to get my camera out in time.  Finally, I got a great picture.  Don't they just make you smile?

And then we arrived in San Gimignano, one of our favorite old walled cities.  Here Madelyn and I are about ready to walk through the main archway into the town.

It's known as the city of towers because it was one of the centers for cloth dying and they used the towers to hang the long pieces of cloth to dry.


As you can see, there's quite a view from the top of them.

The best part of visiting San Gimignano, though, was not the quaintness of the town nor the imposing towers.  It was the gelato.  Dale and I were here on our last trip to Italy and, though we've had some terrific gelato all over Italy, none compares to that from San Gimignano.  

It was so good that Madelyn had to go back for seconds!











On the way home we stopped in another walled city, Certaldo, and found it to be the home of Boccaccio, author of Il Decamerone.  We had to take a funicular up to the town and it was a pleasant little surprise - very few tourists and charming.



Our last night in town we had a great dinner at a neighborhood restaurant and took one final walk though town to say arrivederci to this great city.  And, I am going to close this post with one of our last sights of Florence - the carousel in the Piazza della Repubblica.  

Next stop - Venice!