Florence

I am so glad we made the decision to take a taxi up to this high point in the city. The best money spent and the best view with an added little bonus- Benedictine monks doing their Vespers prayers in the crypt with the amazing acoustics of this “little” church. This is at the San Miniato al Monte abbey church. The little shop they run has a few unique items and was hard to resist buying stuff.

Every European city has their church, cathedral or Basilica, the next photo is of Florence’s Duomo, the cherry on the cake, so far I think. Florance’s Duomo is exceptionally beautiful with it’s pink, white and green marble patterns and gold mosaic art. It can’t really be admired on photos. The dome is huge and makes you admire the architects and builders and artisans who worked on it for hundreds of years.

There are lots of cute little cars and scooters- really necessary in the crazy narrow roads of Florance. I also love the shutters on the windows.

This bridge: The Ponte Vecchio is close to the Uffizi museum.

We went to the Uffizi museum, we didn’t have enough time to visit other places. We followed advice and booked online- it is a timed entrance and was very quick to get in. There were lots of people inside but not too crowded. We enjoyed it, but was very footsore and tired after this. We tried to find the animals in the paintings there were a lot. I include a few cute ones.

You can’t be an hours drive by train from Pisa and not go there! Did I mention how hot it was in Florance and Venice. It was the whole time between 34 and 36 and humid- permanently sweaty! We are ready to enjoy a cool Perth winter! We did not enjoy the heat and especially not the mentality of NO sitting place. I’m exaggerating there are a few benches but not nearly enough. People would just sit on the pavement etc. Grass are out of bounds. We found this in many places in Italy – I think it is on purpose to lure you into cafes and restaurants to make more money off the tourists. Most of the time we would take sandwiches and pop a bag of popcorn in the microwave and take it with us. So we didn’t get to sit down much. Pisa was a terribly crowded place, but everyone tries to give one-another space to get THE PHOTO.