Fascinating and sintilating Florence.

Paloma, our motorhome has a tiny spot in the secured parking area a few minutes walk from the old city.

At €15 per 24 hours its a liitle on the expensive side for what we are getting, but does have location,location,location. (N43.751760 E11.243790).

As neither of us are amazingly keen on our parking space and poor Fred is on lap 56 on the carpark and surrounding street for his walk, we have decided to set ourselves a challenge……

Smash out Florence in 24 hours…..

Is it possible to cover this historic place, giving ourselves a taster and hopefully leaving us wanting more ? 

Well let’s find out what we did see……
The Galleria degli Uffizi is said to be one of the oldest and most famous art museums of the western world.

The Renaissance masterpieces that you will find are quite unique and one of a kind.

We arrived to queues to buy tickets, but you can buy them on line Here , then at least the queue is a little shorter.

Apparently even on an overcast October day it would have taken us 3 hours to get in.

So not wanting to waste our whole day in the queues we decided to put this one on the ‘when we come back list’ – but with tickets already purchased!

Almost next to the gallery is Piazza della Signoria and Loggia de’ Lanzi.

This beautiful open piazza is just in front of the Palazzo Vecchio and it hosts many astonishing statues.

Such as a David replica ( the only one were going to see today) and the Fountain of Neptune.

The Loggia dei Lanzi is an amazing outdoor sculpture gallery and it’s treasures include the statue of Perseus with the head of Medusa by “Benvenuto Cellini”, the Rape of the Sabine women by Giambologna and many many others.

More stunning tall streets and it brought us to possibly the best lunch venue in the city…

Stood outside a completely non descript building but inside it houses one of the inclosed food markets in the centre of Florence.

San Lorenzo Market is the largest and oldest one, here you’ll get the chance to live the real florentine feel…

And on the first floor of  the San Lorenzo’s market a host of high quality bars, restaurants, cafés where to eat, have a drink, and relax.

Florence’s cathedral stands tall over the city with its magnificent Renaissance dome designed by Filippo Brunelleschi, with the baptistery right across.

The cathedral named in honor of Santa Maria del Fiore is a vast Gothic structure built on the site of the 7th century church of Santa Reparata

The stunning exterior is covered in a decorative mix of pink, white and green marble and the sheer size is enough to take your breath away.

And then onto its most famous landmark.

Ponte Vecchio is certainly the most photographed bridge in the city, and today was no expection. Hords of selfie taking touirsts

Is you can’t beat them …… do it really badly!!

The most famous bridge of them all was built at the narrowest point of the Arno and is the only remaining one with houses and shops on it.

In part this is because something important was built on top of them: the Vasari Corridor. This “secret” passageway, built by Vasari for Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici in 1565, links Palazzo Vecchio to Pitti Palace.

In 1593, the jewellery stores that tourists so love were brought to the bridge on command of Ferdinando, the Medici heir who thought that the previous tenants, all being butchers smelled too bad to have their shops right below his corridor !
It’s an easy place to while away some time, looking at all the shiney stuff in the windows!

And finally for us The Oltrarno, the district on the other side of the river from Piazza Della Signoria, is one of the more “intimate areas of Florence, and in many ways feels like a small town all of it own.

What a hectic day!

Given we skipped queuing for the musem, we managed to pack it all into a very long and very tiring day …..

Lots of walking, lots of looking , what a stunning place !

Paul.

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