Wednesday 28 September: A visit to Florence

After last night's excellent dinner, we though that maybe we would stay on here after all. Maybe we could still drive to the places we haven't seen? However five minutes after setting out in the car, it was obvious that we're not going to do that. Driving on the wrong side of the car feels completely alien after so many years. Paul is getting stressed and Sue feels unsafe. Paul is getting quite depressed by the whole situation. Decision confirmed: we must get rid of the car.

Once again we headed into Florence. We dropped into the hotel, which is adjacent to the station and has a reasonably classy reception. However this is a seedy looking part of town, so we may not be going out at night. (Still it's only for two nights).

Back to the Duomo. There's no denying the building is magnificent. The huge dome is justly famous, although it is partly shrouded at present. We walked right around the cathedral then inside for a look. For once, there was no entry fee and no ban on photography. The interior is very spartan, with little decoration. It's also quite dark - the windows are few and small. Although there are some large frescoes and a couple of statues, it's only under the dome that any extensive decoration has been executed. We got a few pictures with the Coolpix, and will come back again with the "real" cameras.

The baptistry is supposed to be one of the great highlights of Rennaissance architecture. We aren't so sure. Maybe with a good clean up and removal of the scaffolding it would look better. We'll have a better look tomorrow (including the interior).

The bell tower is very tall.

From there we walked towards the Uffizi gallery and the adjoining palazzo with all the statues. The most prominent is a replica of Michelangelo's David. It's very big, and has a fair amount of pigeon poo on it. We'll see the real thing tomorow.

On down to the Arno, which is brown and sluggish. Enormous crowds jostling to get past all the hand-bag sellers and stay out of the path of hordes of motor scooters. We walked over the ponte vecchio and had a look in the jewellers' windows. (Legend has it that the original shops were all butchers. One of the Medici was so offended by the sights and smells that he decreed only goldsmiths could work there, and this is still the case today).

Back to the agrotourismo (via the supermarket), and Sue prepared a delicious meal. The one great thing about staying here has been the home cooking. A little domesticity after eight weeks on the road has been very welcome.