Firenze

I know you are all desperate to find out who won the Isaacs V Insects saga on our last night in Venice – I am pleased to report that Isaacs won! The new room was a success, cool and insect and therefore bite free. A perfect end to our time in Venice

After a very straightforward two and a half hour train journey we arrived in Florence yesterday. The streets seem so wide by comparison to Venice, despite them being quite narrow in places. We got our bearings on Monday and easily walked to the Duomo and the river and Ponte Vecchio. It was also very easy to find a pizzeria for dinner.

Today we went on a hop on hop off bus tour. We’ve been on these in numerous cities around the world and found them a great way to find out about the history of the city as well as an easy way to go from landmark to landmark. Unfortunately this one is not great – the commentary is brief and peppered with more adverts and lift music than information. Steven had also made his first mistake of the holiday – he left me in charge of choosing where to pick up the bus and to navigate us there. This will come as no surprise to my family but, despite my Grade A in geography o-level, my sense of direction is non-existent. I walked us half way around Florence to a stop, that had moved, although that was not my fault, when there was a bus stop about 50 metres from the hotel. When we couldn’t find the stop I suggested that we walk to the Piazzale Michelangelo which was to have been our first stop. That completed our walk around the other half of Florence, and we’d have been quicker walking directly from the hotel. But it was well worth the walk with stunning views over the city.

With aching feet we then sat on the bus for the next 40 minutes. As I’ve said it was very disappointing. Everything else is within walking distance and we knew about it or had seen it briefly already. I got one shot from the bus of an interesting statue that I wouldn’t have gone to see (Dietro-Front) but this tour was not worth the money. Once off the bus we briefly visited the Palazzo Vecchio and various markets in the afternoon but this was cut short by a thunderstorm. Thankfully as Mancunians we are hardy and timed our brisk 15 minute trot back to the hotel in the “light rain” of the storm.

The storm was brief and by evening all evidence of it had disappeared and we visited Mercato Centrale which has the best food court we have ever been to. Straight after Pesach we have totally “carbed” out on pizza, pasta of every description, gnocchi and risotto and also had our fair share of fish. Gourmet veggie burgers and fried potatoes tonight at a wonderful vegetarian/vegan stall. Sorry no photos, it went too quickly. Washed down with gelato, naturally.

No need for us to go to Pisa as there are leaning towers in Venice and Burano so tomorrow we are off to Tuscany for an afternoon to learn how to make Pizza and gelato, and on Thursday is our tour inside the various places of culture.