Florence, Italy

We seized the opportunity with another French holiday on November 1 and 2, and since we were already in Paris, flew to Bologna, and caught a 35 minute train to Florence for the weekend.

Firenze as the Italians call the city, is known as the cradle of the Renaissance. The museums and architecture reflect this at every turn. Florence has many museums, too many to visit in a long weekend, but we were able to visit two. Top on our list was the Accademia Gallery where Michelangelo's David has been since 1873. Formerly placed in the Piazza della Signoria in 1504, a replica is there now. Michelangelo carved David from one piece of marble which stands 17 feet high. We were forbidden to take photos of the original but it is quite something to see the original, all 360 degrees of him.

Replica of Michelangelo's David located
in the Piazza della Signoria

Michelangelo and Galileo's tombs can be found at the Basilica of Santa Croce. Florence is also the home of the Galileo Museum.

 Tomb of  Michelangelo

Tomb of  Galileo

The Uffizi Gallery was recommended as a must see and we were not disappointed. We were able to purchase tickets in advance to enter at a certain time period, rather than stand in line which made it nice. Besides the great art it also offered nice views of the city on the second floor.

You can discover many excellent restaurants serving up true Italian specialties, open markets, street vendors and this time of year, roasted chestnuts. There's also great shopping where you can find fine Italian leather goods -shoes, jackets, purses, wallet, belts and ceramics hand painted by local artisans. We found some ceramics and luck be with us, the shop owner will be traveling to Nancy, France in February and offered to deliver them for us. Something unique are the retail stores located on the Ponte (bridge) Vecchio that crosses the River Arno.

Ponte Vecchio

For the size of Florence you wouldn't guess it's a walking city, but it is. The streets are narrow and cars, let alone buses, have a difficult time navigating the streets. If we had brought a car, we would have been charged 30 euro a day to park it, yikes! The majority of the people either walk, ride bicycles, or motorcycles, but from time to time a car does make it through. It makes for a quieter city and cleaner air.

A perfect vehicle to navigate Florence's narrow streets

We arrived after dark for the weekend and was hoping to see some of the Tuscan countryside on our departure, but our train ride was a 90% tunnel ride through the mountains, what a surprise!

Here's more photos at this link:
http://flic.kr/ps/285kjt