Thursday, June 28, 2012

Impressions of Florence

We arrived in this city weary travellers. It was early evening and our 2 days in Florence was already whittled away to 1 because of a train delay of several hours combined with our whirlwind excursion to the Tower and Duomo in Pisa.(Leah, you would have loved the shopping precinct we walked through on our way to the Leaning Tower-the 40 minute walk took us through streets with beautiful shop fronts. Anna, Gill and K had fun buying Birkenstocks at one store. We were glad we bought them when we did because our return journey to the train station was during siesta and everything had closed for those few hours.)
We enjoyed pizza for our late night dinner (in honour of Fraser's birthday) in a busy town square while sitting in the shadows of the enormous gothic Cathedral Santa Maria del Fiore. Quite an exceptional location indeed! We poked around for the evening, window shopping and admiring the designer shops' displays. Florence was full of people wearing beautiful clothing! Many people travel around the city on bicycles and vespas. Pedestrians must keep on the lookout though as it doesn't always seem obvious who has the right of way. The girls had a great time shopping in here. There were beautiful leather products and colourful markets with cheerful vendors. Lots of gift giving took place. The Arno River was so pretty to walk along. Pont Vecchio was a lovely spot for photos, people watching and of course, gelato!
Dare I mention that we didn't make it to the Uffizi Gallery? Our time disappeared and we had not pre-reserved tickets. Kathy and I did visit the Accademia and enjoyed studying the Renaissance Art, Michaelangelos David, and his unfinished sculptures "the Prisoners". We partook of our first siesta and after such a great rest we were ready for a late night out which included an all you can eat tapas menu at Kitshz Restaurant, a panoramic night view of this very pretty city from atop Piazzale Michelangelo...

... an exciting set of bus rides where we knew not where we were headed nor when to get off, and a little scare after midnight in a lonely, back of the tracks kind of street where we were approached by 2 men. "All's well that ends well" our momma used to say. So long Frienze. Thank you for a lovely stay. Onwards now to Rome and more adventure!

5 comments:

  1. Aunt Mar, you write so beautifully! I love getting sneak peaks into your trip. So delightful. Love to you all. Bek.

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  2. Your commentary is so good I think King Ricky should hire you!

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  3. Hallelujah! I received some comments! Thanks JD!

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  4. Glad you are following Bek. We are finding many trinkets along the way that remind us of you. Bekah would like this etc. Love you dear!

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  5. Ah so great you ate Pizza for my birthday! :):):)

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