After a night of wine and dancing at the Vineyard, we AGAIN rose early for breakfast and to drive into Florence to spend the day. First we walked into to one of the squares with a beautiful church and then had a gold and leather demonstration including a try on for Liz and another member of our tour of some very nice leather jackets! I bought some little things to take home – just enough to get the VAT back! Then the Local Guide took us on a walking tour of Florence which ended up in the main piazza, where the famous Duomo and Baptistry are. Then we were free to go as we pleased until it was time to return to the bus.
Now comes Liz and Lynda`s big adventure! Actually not big, more fun! As we were a bit hungry we first went to a restaurant that advertises GF that I have successfully eaten at previously. Liz got to chatting with the couple next to us (you sit at tables very close to each other) and saw the soup they were having looked delicious and with our lack of vegetable intake for the week, and the fact that the soup was gluten free, we each had the vegetable soup and I also had my favorite Italian salad – Caprese!
Then we had to decide what museum to visit – Accademia where David is or Uffuzi which is HUGE. We decided that we would check out the Accademia museum as when Andrew and I had been there it was on a tour, and so we did not see the whole thing. It is an amazing museum in its own right and the highlight of seeing the large David statue is just icing on the cake. The interesting part of the museum that I had not seen previously was a room where some small sculptures were located with a bonus ramp to get in! Walking along looking at them it looked like they had a grid of pencil marks on them and one looked like it had little nails hammered into the marble. Low and behold we soon found out by watching a video, that this is the way the sculptures are reproduced – larger or smaller – to scale! It was fascinating. We were able to explore the 2nd floor of the museum too thanks to an elevator to a stair lift!
Then it was time to go for a walk – Liz likes walking and we needed some exercise considering the hours we had put on on the bus! So we went to visit the Ponte Vecchio also known as the “Bridge of Jewels” or “Old Bridge” was the only crossing across the Arno river until about 1200 and the only bridge the Germans did not destroy. A fun fact – people live on the bridge above their stores – must be very small apartments!
Then Liz and I had to make our way back to where we were going to meet the tour which was near the leather store that we had toured. I was shocked to see Liz do some actual shopping in the store at this time however I am a firm believer of bringing a special item home from vacation, so we both bought colapsable leather garbage bins! We then met the group and walked back to the bus which then took us to a family home in Montetermini for dinner. When we arrived, the skies had opened up and it was POURING rain and instead of being able to walk from the bus about 500 meters to the dining hall we had to be shuttled in cars! It was a delicious home cooked meal and the two ladies that cooked and served us the meal were awesome and it was an interesting experience to be in this large glass enclosed dining room while it poured rain all around us!
Then back to the bus in the car shuttle and off to bed for our last day on the road! We are going back to Rome with a stop in Siena where I will be going to my favourite gelato shop that I found on our previous trip that has GF cones! Ciao!
