Nov 24: Florence 13-18

Wednesday 13 November 

Florence 

So.. we had breakfast and set off on an earlier train for Florence. 

I hadn't slept much so I nodded off.. to be woken up by Mike saying 'We're here'. We got off the train. 

We weren't here, we were there - on the outskirts of Florence 10 minutes (or nearly an hour walking) away from our intended destination. 'Google said we were there' muttered Mike. No it didn't. It really didn't!!

Luckily a local train came along a few minutes later so we got on that, got off at the correct stop and started to walk towards our accommodation. 

Lots of things going on to sidetrack us!

We reached the hotel, had a short rest and set off for a wander. 

All quite random but a good exercise in getting our bearings. 

We were very tired so we bought pizza, lasagna and a bottle of wine and ate them in our room.  Lovely selection in the shop.

Thursday 14 November

Florence

Up early with tickets for 8.15am at the Galleria dell' Accademia. Only 7 minutes away from our accommodation. 

Straight in walking against the flow to look at Michelangelo's David before the crowds arrived. 

Fabulous. Such detail.

.. and the unfinished works of prisoners/slaves - placed by Michelangelo's nephew in the Boboki gardens after his death and later donated to the Accademia.. just WOW!.. 

.. all those chisel marks.. 🥰

Rape of the Sabines by Giambologna - model for the sculpture by Jean de Boulogne. 

Three interlocking pieces. Amazing work. 

Interesting techniques for making plaster casts and ensuring that proportions, sizes etc remained accurate. Using tiny pinholes was one method. 

 Beautiful detail.

Cattedrale de Santa Maria de Fiore.

Wine window. Used to sell the wine without contact to avoid the spread of disease. Revived again during covid!!

Another wine window - unused.

 A walk around the city.

Piazza della Santissima Anunziata with its renaissance porticoes. The little blue plaques are pictures of foundlings from the hospital. The facade was also apparently used as the house in Hannibal. 

Locks and scarves (?) placed by students in October 2024.

This square is also home to the first orphanage in the world - Ospedale degli Innocenti - founded after Black Death when many orphaned children were abandoned there. 

Spot where the babies were left.

Piazza della Signoria with the c14th crenellated tower on the Palazzo Vecchio.

Neptune fountain. 

Replica of David in the square.

A sit down and bite to eat. Warm in the sunshine but very chilly in the shadows even with the blue sky.

Ponte vecchio on Arno river.

Think this was a monastery?

A long walk today - nearly 12 miles - both shattered and tired feet.. 🥺🤣

Sally was enjoying the fb pics as they bought back lots of happy memories for her - it was here that Mark proposed to her.. 🥰

I gave her the link to my holiday blog so she could see more photos - this was her reply.. 

🤣🤣🤣 So funny.

Friday 15 November

Florence 

Thought we'd have an early breakfast as there seemed to be a large group of teenagers on a school trip who arrived just after we'd finished yesterday. 

We thought wrong. They arrived early 😁 so we just brought breakfast back to our room.

Another sunny day with quite an autumnal feel.

First stop was a quick look around the Mercato Centrale. 

Then on to the church of Orsanmichele.  

We'd looked in here briefly when we first arrived but hadn't been able to find it again for a proper visit - not helped by not remembering the name either! 

The upper floor was a museum - reached by going out of the building and entering across the road to climb several flights of steps - to go through a door and walk back across a bridged walkway to the next floor up!

The highest floor was reached by a staircase which curved round a pillar. 

Not much to see up there other than fabulous views from the windows. 

Next stop was the Gallerie degli Uffizi museum. Quite difficult to get to the entrance as they'd closed off the square by the Palazzo Vecchio and there were loads of police all around. Turns out the G7 summit was taking place there. 

Irony is that the G7 summit was purely about tourism - whilst Florence is thinking about introducing a tourist tax to limit visitor numbers - much like Venice has already done (to no effect) 🙄

Uffizi museum.

Views from various windows as we walked round.

The obligatory crane spoiling the view.. 🙄🤣

Walked over the old bridge and found a pizzeria down a little side street - with the most delicious pizza!. 😋

Priti palace - home of the Medicis.

All the ceilings were fabulous.

 

So. Many. Paintings!

Clothing exhibition.

We didn't have time to visit the modern art exhibition or the Boboli gardens.

.

A walk up to Piazzale Michelangelo.

Another 12 miles walked. So tired - again.. 😁

There were Pinocchio puppets, pencils etc all over - turns out that the author Carlo Collodi was born in Florence.

Saturday 16 November

Florence 

First visit of the day was back to the Piazza Anunziata so I could look at where the new born babies were abandoned. 

We were able to pop into the basilica also in the square in-between masses. 

A quiet unassuming frontage with a quadrangle decorated with various scenes. 

Inside the building was just sheer opulent over indulgence!!

We could here loads of noise just around the corner by the Accademia - a protest. 

Don't know if it was related but as we walked back later there were signs on the Accademia door saying it was closed due to industrial action. 

Then it was round the corner to have a look in the Opificio delle Pierre Dure - a little museum dedicated to semi precious stones.

This came about after Ferdinand de Medici set up a court laboratory to study the semi precious stones which he loved - this later paved the way for the museum. 

Just fascinating to see how paintings can be 'transcribed' into pictures using these semi precious stones. 

Each piece meticulously chosen and shaped. 

Such painstaking and fabulous work!

The colour on this fireplace 🤩

Walk by the river - very busy with it being Saturday and therefore weekend. 

We stopped off at the same pizzeria that we'd been to yesterday as we had enjoyed the food so much. We shared a calzone today.

Then into the Baboli gardens that we hadn't had chance to see yesterday.

All very beautiful in the sunshine 

A slow walk back and ice cream at the side of the cathedral. 

Statues.

We had managed to miss the panel in the basilica showing Mary who had been painted by a monk. 

Legend has it that he was troubled about how he was going to paint her face and do it justice. He eventually fell asleep and when he woke up it was done - some say it was painted by god himself or an angel. 

Another full day.

Sunday 17 November

Absolutely the right day to be leaving Florence as the skies were grey and it was drizzling with rain. 

We arrived at the train station early and managed to get a train just minutes before it left so there was no waiting around. 

Pisa

Found our new accommodation and the lady was kind enough to let us into our room even though we were two hours early.

Went for a walk back up to the Leaning Tower.

Different skies today!

Went back to the cafe with a view and had a charcuterie board and cocktails. Very nice.

A slow wander back to our accommodation.

The little church by the river was open so we were finally able to have a look inside.

Monday 18 November

Breakfast then a short walk down to the train station to get the PisaMover back to the airport. Only two short stops to get there - and walkable from where we were staying apparently but we didn't try it. 

Clever little train with no driver. 

Uneventful flight back to Manchester. 

Home

Tram back from the airport to Victoria station then hopped onto the met for Bury.  Short wait atq the bus station for the 480 then we were home. 

Three hours in total but no cost with the metro card. Taxi would have been about £60!

A great holiday - we did loads.