Firenze aka Florence

We arrived in Firenze, and checked into our very much centrally located hotel.  It was only a few steps away from the famous green and white marbled Duomo with it's outer babtistry famous for it's beautifully carved bronze doors.  We had dinner as a group at local place, they served Spaghetti and meatballs, they were delicious. Then we roamed around and snapped pictures of the Santa Croce Church.  It was founded in 1294 and is the final resting place of Michaelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli and a monument to Enrico Fermi.  We were able to go in the following afternoon and explore better with an audio self-guided tour. 

The first morning there we headed out to our included leather demonstration which was then followed by a walking tour of Flornece.  Our guide is a Florence native and she took us to the Piazza de la Signoria to explain the many statues there including the famous David by Michaelangelo.  Now a replica is there and the original is at the Museum Academia.   FYI if you want to see him make a reservation by phone about 1 or 2 months in advance. 

We walked to the Ponte Vecchio were we asked our guide about the locks on the bridge and she said that they are love locks, the keys are to be thrown into a body of water. BUT that if you are caught doing it you could be fined because now it is considered vandalism.  Finally we made our way back tot the baptistery near our hotel and she explained that it was built because you had to be baptized before being allowed into a church. 

Once the tour was done we had freetime which allowed us to make the trek to the Boboli Gardens, which turned out be simply and over priced viewpoint area in my opinion.  But it was fun, then we went into the Basilica di Santa Croce so Sergio could pay homage to Galileo.  It was as beautiful inside as it was outside.  People wanted yo be buried inside the church to humble themselves because they knew their graves would be stepped on,  so the floor is covered in grave stones.  It was cool but eerie.  

After that we went back to the hotel and washed up for our group photo and the best meal of the tour in the hills of Tuscany.   We had a typical, yet lavish, 6 course meal.  The grand finally and my favorite thing was the roasted pig leg, WOW it was so delicious!  After that the bus dropped us off at Club Space were we danced with our new friends.  Finally we called it a night and looked forward to our day trip to the winery and San Gimignano.

Ciao!