Beautiful Tuscany and our trip to Florence

I’m writing this as I leave our last port of Naples, which I’ll get to in a later post. I have been busy, so I’m a little behind with the posts. Hopefully my memory will serve me well…

Our port in Tuscany was Lovorno. We opted for a free-for-all tour into Florence, where they take you by bus, give you a couple of charming stories on the way there and then drive you back. So we had 5 hours to wander the streets of Florence… not nearly enough time!

Florence was out of this world. Upon arriving the city is pretty new and sort of blah. But when you get into the old part I was blown away by the beauty and how busy the city is. I quickly made a dash to the Ufizzi Museum which is home to the Birth of Venus by Botticelli. I originally wanted to go to the Academia to see Michaelangelo’s David even though I have already seen him at Caesar’s Palace in Vegas… but of course the original is always better. But the line up would have taken hours and I only had 5… so I opted for the other museum.

The sun was hot but luckily the line was in the shade. The lineup took about 1 hour to get into the museum. I only appreciate stuff that I know is done by someone famous enough that I know them… so we scanned the art for the names I knew. Finally we came upon it. It is damn beautiful. It really amazes me how these old works of art are so beautiful in every aspect. Shading, colours, and the realism.

By this time we were hungry. Lucky for us the museum has a beautiful terrace where you can get sandwiches… and I had the best frozen cappuccino.

The next destination was a pedestrian bridge which is the only bridge that wasn’t destroyed in WWII. The bridge is lined with stores selling jewelry and well… crap. But it was a great opportunity for some pictures.

As a side note… I really think that the policeman are hired for looks… I imagine the interview to be like a Top Model Go-See. They walk in and if they aren’t pretty enough they don’t hire them. Cause all the policemen that we saw had classic Italian good looks!

Anyway, the next stop was the Duomo. Unfortunately we were sidetracked by a crazy street performer with a white face who insisted we pay her for the makeup she left on our cheeks as she kissed Gavin and Brad. She got hers though… the next couple she tried to play with thwapped her on her head.

We finally made it to the Duomo. I think I read it is the third biggest in the world. What is the Duomo? Well it is the big half circle dome thing at the top of a church. It was huge… and Brad humoured me and did the hike up all 463 stairs to the top of the dome. And it was worth it!

The view was outstanding. 365 degree view of all of Florence… stunning. And totally worth the work if you can handle it the huff and puff of all the stairs.

Florence was an amazing city to visit and I really hope I make it back there to see more of it. 5 hours definitely isn’t enough time to explore the city… let alone the surrounding Tuscan area around the city. So I’ll definitely have to return… besides, I haven’t seen David in his full glory.