We arrived in Florence around 6pm on Saturday, where the weather was a little over cast. Our hotel was quite a ways from downtown so dinner was provided in the hotel. We had a collection of bread, pasta, potato and various other Italian carbohydrates spread over the course of an hour and by the time we finished eating it was time to go to bed.
Sunday Morning we got up bright and early and were shipped into the downtown area where Sam and I went with some of the group for an explore through the Galleria dell'Accademia. There we were taken for a bit of a tour through the various art periods leading up to the Renaissance. Our guide showed us through some paintings by Brunelleschi and then stepped us through some incomplete sculptures of Michelangelo's. She gave us a bit of an understanding of how Michelangelo worked and a bit of an insight into his temperament and personality. We then moved on to the high point of the gallery which was Michaelangelos' David (The real one). It was really impressive and our guide took us around all four sides of the sculpture and discussed different aspects of how it was sculpted and why it was significant to Florence's history. A little like the Sistine Chapel we were not allowed to take photo's - so we won't be putting any here, not of the original at least.
From the Accademia we caught up with the rest of our tour group and were given a walking tour around some of the other areas of the downtown, which included the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, the Battistero di San Giovann, the Piazza della Signoria and the Basilica of Santa Croce (which is famously the burial site of Michelangelo, Galileo and Machiavelli amoungst others).
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| Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore |
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| The Original Fake Statue of David at the Piazza della Signoria. |
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| The crowds at at the Piazza della Signoria. |
After our walking tour finished we did a quick tour through one of the local leather factories - which was really just an excuse to get us in the store (which was rather expensive - but hey it's Italian Leather, what do you expect). It was interesting enough but Sam and I left the group pretty quickly to go do our own thing. First we made mandatory stop to get a coffee - the coffee here is fantastic, its completely blown the whole Tim Horton's thing out of our system. From the cafe we went and checked out the local markets - it was awesome with loads of cheap knocks, tacky souvenirs and haggling stall owners. We spent a couple of hours looking around and even bought a few small things.
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| The markets - my favorite place |
From the market we headed down to the Arno River to take some pictures of the Ponte Vecchio, before heading back to meet the group and catch the bus back to the hotel for a while.
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| The Ponte Vecchio |
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| Us at the Ponte Vecchio |
In the evening some of us from the group headed out to the Tuscan hills for a quick tour of a Winery/Olive Oil Factory. We ran a little late due to a car accident in one of the tunnels and so we didn't get to see quite as much of the area as we would have liked. However, it was interesting to learn a little about how they make the products and that government regulate what is produced in the area. The best thing about the tour was that it included dinner and a rather generous sampling of their various wines and oils.
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| At the Tuscan Dinner |
All to soon however, we were back on the road again. This morning we hit the road west for a little town called Pisa, which is famous for their poor engineering skills. It was really interesting to see this iconic bell tower. Unfortunately, the weather was really bad and we didn't hang around for too long. We have been pretty lucky with the weather actually, given that its autumn this is the first place that we really got wet.
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| Sam thinks this is a genuinely awful and cheesy photo but I kinda like it. |
From Pisa we headed North around the cost for the better part of the rest of the day. We had a quick lunch stop just inside the Italian border before heading into France, but not for long... After being in France for an hour and a half or so we drove into the Principality of Monaco. John gave us a quick guided tour as we drove in and headed to the area around the Prince's Palace. We spent an hour or so hobnobbing with the rich and famous and generally enjoying this meticulously groomed area. It really is a small place with the highest population density in the world with population of over 37,000 people living in a space that is less than 2.02 km2. From Monaco, we headed back into France. We will be staying here in Nice for the next two nights.
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| Saint Nicholas Cathedral |
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| Looking East |
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| Looking out from beside the Princes Palace |
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