We started the Saturday morning with a touch of home – a cup of tea, and baguette with butter and Vegemite, in the apartment. We also had a sleep in – no trains or tours to chase. A very relaxed start.
Mid morning we headed to the Leonardo da Vinci Museum, wow. He is a lifetime idol of mine and it was so amazing to walk through the display – what a genius. Bel didn’t know a lot about him beforehand but by the end was part of the fan club. Artist, engineer, architect, and human anatomist, he could also write with both hands in mirrored form.
We did the audio tour which was only 1 euro extra and recommend it. While the exhibit is quite small, there are lots of hands on exhibits.
We were there for almost two hours, and didn’t leave until 1.30. Hungry, we headed straight to the cafe next door and had the porchetta we spotted earlier; with tomato and lettuce on a roll, so nice – we had been eyeing off the porchetta since we arrived in Italy.
While we ate I checked to see how the Tahs were going in the rugby quarterfinals, they were 27-23 with 20 min to go, so we sat there glued to score updates and tweets to watch them scrape home 30-23, go Tahs. Luckily we missed the first half – they were losing 23-6, so a great comeback.
That afternoon we went shopping for our leather jackets. Florence is famous for its textiles, particularly leather and there are hundreds of shops and market stalls. We had a plan to check lots of places, but that went out the window quickly. While we had quick looks in a few places, we pretty much bought in the first place we tried something on😂. Why does the sales lady look so happy?
Bel needed her jacket altered a little so we enjoyed an afternoon wine in the Piazza next door while they went to work. When it was ready we dropped them back at the apartment, freshened up and headed out for dinner. We found a great place next to the Duomo where a busker was playing the violin. The atmosphere was beautiful; so surreal.
Sunday was our last day in Florence and we had a couple more things on our list to tick off. First was Piazzale Michelangelo. We walked across the Arno river. Bel tried to strike a few poses like we saw a lot and f the young kids doing..
and then to Bel’s delight, we climbed a few more stairs😂.
They were worth it though, the the view across Florence was stunning. The city has tight regulations on building height which has preserved the prominence of the Duomo on the skyline.
There was also another fake David! our count was up to about 5 or 6 by now, but of course there is only one true David, isn’t there?
Next we took the short cut to the Boboli gardens. We could see it in the distance.
and figured that since we were already high we should stay high (so to speak) and not walk back down to the river and then back up to the gardens. We walked for about a km before I checked the gps. Only 2.5km to go… so maybe not a short cut, but we did get to see where the rich people live.
After lots of narrow streets with no foot paths and people driving very fast (think of the Italian job) we finally reached the entry.
The gardens were beautiful and expansive, basically the backyard of the Medici’s palace.
Next we toured the Palace – it was named Pitti Palace after the family they bought it off.
We looked around for a while. It was an amazing residence, but by this stage of the trip both of us had seen far too many palaces/duomos and we were keen to get out of there and have lunch.
We didn’t finish until about 2pm, so it was a late lunch, and as it was our last chance I had to get Steak Florentine again; Steak and chips! It was awesome, beautiful steak, smaller, but a lot more tender and tastier than Siena.
Bel then dragged me to the market for some final shopping. I stayed with her for about 10min and then we both agreed it would be better if I went for a beer. I soon realized It wasn’t just me…
We made it back to the apartment by around 7pm, did some packing and blogging, and then at about 9.30 headed out for some Pizza and more Gelato of course. While in Australia would be finishing up dinner and thinking about bed at this time, in Italy this is the peak time to head out. Florence is such a beautiful and vibrant city, we’ve had an amazing 4 days here and could spend many more. We’ll be back!
PS Jax – you have lots of work when we get back.