The next leg of our journey began with just getting to the train station in Venice. It was not very far at all from the hotel but 3 ladies getting 3 big bags over the big bridge by hand was always going to be fun! Fortunately 3 very willing husbands were not leaving town till an hour or so after us so they lugged our bags over the bridge for us and duly escorted us into the train station where we easily found our Eurostar train and subsequently our carriage and seats.
A comfortable trip of just on 2 hours down to Florence and a scramble to get out the door with our big bags before they ‘slammed shut on us’ was a bit of a worry but we got there!
Okay – where to now! Purchased a pocket size map at the station newsagent and determined that a quick walk over that road and over that tram line then down that little street (dragging our bags!) was our destination. Now…. our hotel is in this street, but which way???? Okay let’s go left (dragging our bags!) – 100 yds or so down the street of hotels! might just popo in here and ask which hotel was ours “100 yds back the other way from that corner!” (Dragging our bags!!!) BAck we go and eventually find our hotel and check ourselves in. We have a very nice ‘little’ room with a small balcomy outside where Trish can have her 1 a day evening cigarette and we can get a bit of fresh air.
Finally managed to get ‘a little man’ to turn on our TV (push this button!!) oops – oh well that’s what we pay them for!
HEaded out of the hotel just after 12pm for what I had planned for us to do that afternoon. FOund the St Lorenzo markets – Trish….. where are you!!! HEAPS of leather stalls and even the good quality leather shops tucked in behind them. The prices here even with our dollar exchange are very reasonable and we’ve been picking up good leather handbags for 50 Euros ($75). Well Trish has!!!! Anyway a wander through the markets (must come back to that shop……) and we make our way to Florence’s main Cathedral (La Duomo) – a beautiful cathedral in the midst of the the city buildings with some delightful ornate works inside. But then what more can I personally say about a cathedral? Sorry not much – they are beautiful, no doubt about it and Trish is in awe of each one we visit.
From there (and 100 photos later) we head off in search of the Accademai Gallery to find ‘David’. That’s how we kept looking anywya… where’s David??? Because we were so focussed on the shops on the left side of the street (well Trish was)… we totally missed the gallery entracne then promptly got ourselves lost! But it was not a sorry lost – we found ourselves in a back street, in the most beautiful church we have ever seen! There was a huge TV/Video link up being set up in the church with practive going on for something – advertising flyers outside may have indicated that the Pope was coming to celebrate mass or something similar but of that we can’t be sure! The TV camera crew and set up going on certainly indicated something was happening – there cables alone were about 6 inches thick! and there were heaps of them everywhere. So we have told ourselves that wow! We’ve been in the church the Pope was visiting! Hoever, whatever it was, the church was just beautiful and were are definitely not sorry we got ourselves lost that afternoon.
Eventually found our way to the Accademie Gallery and visited the magnificent statue of ‘David’ – a solid marble statue around which the building was constructed in the 1800’s. (Baber boys – get your Google searches happening to see who
‘David’ is!) Within the gallery are some magnificent works of Christian art and hundreds of plaster busts of numerous people. Just amazing stuff and this is the first palce we’ve visited!
From there it was back to the hotel (past all those shops again….. Trish!!!!). Dropped off our bags in our hotel room and found ourselves, by accident, an upmarket little restaurant in the alleyway opposite the hotel – oooohhh a bit of a worry as to how much this will cost but wow! A whole $30 each!!! Cheap!!! An that was with a small aperitif, a main each, 3 glasses of wine and a dessert.
Back to the hotel and crash!!! Our feet won’t walk another step today.
