Florence

Ponte Vecchio crossing the river Arno. Until 1218 it was the only bridge. The current bridge was rebuilt after a flood in 1345.

Saturday 6th March

At first our plane was advertised as being two hours late. However they found a spare plane at Luton and flew it over to Bristol and we managed to take off almost on time which was wonderful. The clouds cleared as we flew over the Alps and we had amazing views. At Pisa we found our six minute train to Pisa Central Station, and then our next train to Florence. We got out our maps and identified the road we were in. Unfortunately we walked a few hundred yards in the wrong direction. We consulted the map again, turned round and then found the hotel which is very comfortable. It was then 10.00 pm so we found a McDonalds for our supper.

Sunday 7th March

The Hotel San Giorgio isn't a five star hotel but its perfectly comfortable and gave us a reasonable breakfast before we set off to walk into the town.

Our first stop was to the Cathedral Square where we admired the beautiful marble of the Cathedral, on the right and the tall bell tower. Although the sun was shining there was a bitterly cold wind blowing and we were glad of our coats.

This is the end of the Cathedral and you can just see the Baptistry on the right.

Ron and I attended the service. I was hoping for some wonderful music but being Lent everything was a bit subdued. I did talk to the organist afterwards and I think he would have let me play if it hadn't been Lent and they were trying to close the Cathedral. There are four separate organ consoles all linked. There are then five separate organs in different parts of the Cathedral. The big five manual console can play all of them, but this smaller console only three of the organs.

After the service we walked round to the Baptistry which was originally the first Cathedral.

Quite fantastic carvings on the Baptistry doors.

Inside the Baptistry looking at the roof.

The centre panel of the roof.

Walking down to the south we suddenly found ourselves inside the courtyard of the Uffizi Gallery. We didn't stop as we are booked in to see it on Tuesday.

The River Arno looking East.

and looking West to the famous Ponte Vecchio

Suitably refreshed with some lunch we walked half way back towards the Cathedral to find the Palazzo Vecchio which acts as the town hall.

The square is enormous and houses statues.

We went inside the Palazzo to admire lots of incredible paintings and ceilings.

This is the room which is used for public meetings.

Eventually, back outside the Palazzo we admired some of the statues before walking slowly back to our hotel for a short rest before going out to supper.

Monday 8th March

After breakfast we walked down to the river and crossed on the next bridge down to yesterday, over Ponte Santa Trinita and found ourselves in wonderful old streets with tall houses.

Eventually we found our way to the Pitti Palace.This was built in 1457 for banker Luca Pitti who wanted it to be bigger and better than the Medici Palace. Ironically, the Medici bought the Palazzo Pitti in 1550 when the Pitti lost their fortune and it became the residence of the rulers of Florence. (How like bankers today !!!)

We had a very steep climb up through the very beautiful gardens with wonderful statues and fountains.

From the top we had a wonderful view across Florence and here you can see the River Arno disappearing out of the town.

You can also see the dome of the Cathedral.

This shows the panoramic view from the gardens. - Click on the picture to see it enlarged .(in a new window)

Walking back we came to the Piazza della Signoria where yesterday we visited the Palazzo Vecchio. Here we admired the statue of Duke Cosimo I (1595) the man who brought all of Tuscany under Medici rule. Apparently he had very short legs and had to have a special saddle made for him. However he was quite vane and insisted that all pictures and statues of him should be shown with extra long legs.

We slightly lost our sense of direction on the way back but accidentally found ourselves in the Piazza Santa Croce looking at the church of Santa Croce. Here Michelangelo is buried and also Rossini, Machiavelli, and Galileo Galilei. This Piazza is the site of an annual football game in medieval costume, which I saw on the television (C5) not long ago, with Paul Merton. There were long queues to go in so, as it was getting late we decided to return here another day. We eventually got back to our hotel at 5.00 having been on our feet almost continuously since we set off at 10.00 this morning.

Tuesday 9th March

Believe it or not but we had snow in Florence this morning. We walked to the Effizi Gallery and got our reserved tickets in good time. We were supposed to go in at 10.30, but they weren't over busy and we went in at 10.00 am. No photographs allowed inside but I took this one through a window looking down at the courtyard in the middle of the gallery. You start on the second floor at the end on the right. Work your way right to the end, where I am at the moment and then right down the other side.

Looking out the other way you see the river and the Ponte Vecchio. We had one quick stop for coffee and another for a sandwich and a drink but it was 2.00 pm by the time we left.

It was raining when we came out and bitterly cold, but we walked to the church of Santa Croce which we saw yesterday, and this time we went in. They are doing some very major restoration work, so there was scaffolding in every direction. However it was an amazing place, and very wide open.

A most elaborate pulpit by Benedetto da Maiano.

Michelangelo

Rossini

Behind the main altar are wonderful frescoes but they were all being renovated and everything was absolutely covered with scaffolding.

From the main altar looking back down the church.

In the Chapter House we found this enormous painting.

Outside we walked round the cloisters.

It was by then even colder and still raining so we went into a little cafe for a coffee to warm up and then took a taxi back to our hotel.

Later this evening we will be crossing the river to St Mark's English Church where we are going to hear a performance of Puccini's opera La Boheme sung and acted by professional singers with piano accompaniment which should be lovely.

Just back from St Mark's Church having seen a simply magnificent performance of La Boheme. All four performers were superb professional singers who were so well cast for their parts. A performance that we will remember for many years to come.

Wednesday 10th March

A short walk took us to the Accademia Gallery and the first thing we found was an exhibition of old musical instruments.

At the end of the next room was the famous Michelangelo statue of David about to kill the giant Goliath. It was sculpted between 1501 and 1504 and was originally in front of the Palazzo Vecchio where it remained until 1875 when it was transferred here for its own safety.

Walking on from the Accademia we could see the Cathedral and its bell tower ahead of us. First we stopped for some lunch and to warm up as it was so bitterly cold.

Then into the Cathedral which is very open and empty and surprisingly free of statues.

Its best feature was its incredible dome which was added in the 15th century and was built without scaffolding. You can climb to the very top if you feel you can brave 463 steps.

I decided to look round the interior of the Cathedral but Ron decided to climb up the bell tower. He managed to get about 3/4 of the way to the top but the wind was so strong and so cold that he then decided to come down again. However the next four pictures were taken by him from the bell tower.

It was getting late by then and we were very cold however we came across the Church of Cappelle Medice where most of the Medici family were buried. No photographs allowed in the church but there was this pleasant garden attached and you can see the walls of the church on the right and its dome behind.

We walked past the outside of the church and through a large market on our way back to the hotel.

Thursday 11th March

Our hire car arrived and we set off to drive to San Gimignano which is a very beautiful little town but high up in the mountains and deep in snow.

Outside the Cathedral someone had made a perfect snowman. It rained solidly most of the day.

San Gimignano is a town with many high towers, built as fortresses, but nowadays most are unsafe.

There was nothing special about the outside of the Cathedral, other than the fact that men were shovelling snow into their lorries and driving it out of the town.

However the inside of the Cathedral was quite spectacular with murals of Bible scenes everywhere.

The town square in the middle of San Gimignano. Here we had a sandwich for lunch before driving on to Siena.

Siena is, like San Gimignano on top of a high hill. We had to park outside the walls, but we were saved most of the climb as we found a whole series of escalators to take us almost to the top. No one can visit Siena without seeing the enormous Cathedral.

Inside the pillars were made of alternating black and white marble, and the floor was quite amazing.

This is the roof of the Chapter House.

With murals all round the walls.

and masses of incredibly valuable old music books.

One of the most famous parts of Siena is the fan shaped Piazza del Campo which slopes down to the bell tower. It is here that the famous Palio, a horse race is held on 2nd July & 16th August.

Friday 12th March

This morning it was still raining but the wind had dropped so it wasn't quite so cold. We spent the morning going our own ways and I went for a long walk exploring some of the little side streets, but not far from where we were staying I found the Piazza Santa Maria Novello.

Beside the square was the church of Santa Maria Novello which is Tuscany's most important Gothic church, built between 1279 and 1357 by Dominican monks.

Then in the afternoon it stopped raining so we caught a bus which took us to the very high Piazzale Michelangelo. In the middle of the square is a full size copy of the famous David statue.

Being so high up and south of the river there were wonderful views across the city. In the middle can be seen the Cathedral.

and the River Arno with the famous Ponte Vecchio in the foreground.

Ron has been severely criticised because so far there have been no pictures of us, and we have been told that we just as well might have been in Paris and bought some pictures of Florence, so just to put the record straight we used the delayed action on Ron's camera to take this one. With the Cathedral in the background there can be absolutely no doubt now that we really are in Florence.

Tomorrow we leave Florence for Pisa, so our final picture here is a panoramic view of the city taken from the Piazzale Michelangelo.
If you click on the picture you will see a much larger version in a separate window.

Saturday 13th March

We are now in Pisa and crossed the river on our way to the Cathedral Square. I'm sitting at the airport hoping to get this last launched before we are called to our plane.

On our way we saw a statue to Garibaldi. ? did he invent the biscuits ?