Monday 13th May
Sometimes it’s just nice to go on a train journey. So after lunch we walked through Lucca to the station. Trains go to Pisa every half an hour and costs €14.40 return for 2 people. So, as the advert used to say, we let the train take the strain, while Guido and Elena looked after our beloved home on wheels back at the Sosta. We wizzed through the Tuscan countryside and in just over 30 mins we were at Pisa Central. Both the ticket machine and the announcements on the train were in English.
The UNESCO site containing the leaning tower, Duomo (cathedral) and Baptistery were stunning, and well looked after if the manicured lawns were anything to go by. We didn’t go inside any of the buildings nor climb the tower (for €18 each), we were just happy wandering around admiring everything.
Well, apart from all the tat shops surrounding the place.
The walk from the station did look like it needed a lot of tlc if I’m honest and I did get a gold star from Andy for spotting the dodgy looking characters hanging about.
Luckily we came back with everything we went with. BUT, if we hadn’t walked that way, we would have missed the beautiful little chapel, Chiesa Di Santa Maria Della Spina, on the side of the river.
Back in Lucca, we treated ourselves to some Italian pizza and had another wander round before walking back to Harriet.
Tuesday morning we had to say good bye to Guido, the lovely man who owned the garage and sosta. What a guy, goodness himself!!
We drove on the toll roads to Florence through some lovely countryside. Non of the toll booths we passed took cards, and most of them were unmanned, so it’s a good job we had lots of cash. We passed loads of grapevines, red poppies and acres of market gardens growing rows upon rows of ornamental trees and bushes.
We soon arrived at Firenze (Florence) Camping in Town. A huge campsite on the edge of the city with its own shuttle bus. It wasn’t cheap at €35 a night (with EHU), but we would rather be safe than sorry. In all the countries we’ve been through (Italy being the 28th), it’s the only one that we were pre warned about people breaking in to motorhomes and as this blog is being written, we read of one such incident of an English couple who parked in a car park in Pisa who were broken into and robbed yesterday!!
So, after arriving at the campsite, we spent what was left of the afternoon washing and hanging the clothes out to dry.
Wednesday morning we were up and out and on the shuttle bus to Florence. We caught the 23 bus from the drop off point to the Maria Novello Church where we were just in time to join the Free Renaissance Walking Tour.
We love walking tours as you learn so much. We learnt about the renaissance architecture and the famous people who lived and worked in Florence at that time, like Donatello, Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci and Dante.
There was amazing art everywhere
including talented musicians and artists
and we even spotted an Anthony Gormly statue on the roof of one of the buildings!
We learnt about the UNESCO site of the amazing cathedral with its Campanella and Baptistry.
We were shown the towers that were built in the city as a show of wealth and as protection against families fighting each other.
The best thing to be pointed out to us though were the 'No Entry' signs. A local artist had altered many of them much to the authorities disgust lol.
We were warned not to buy anything from the illegal traders such as selfie sticks as, if the police catch you, the buyer (not the trader) is fined €150!! We were also shown the best gelato shop to buy ice cream from. Lots of Gelato is sold in Florence but many sell shop bought stuff. The little shop on Via Tavolini was an authentic one who made their own Gelato everyday. We went back later to try some. Delicious!!
Thursday we chilled out on the campsite and caught up with the blog.
Friday, after lunch, we walked to the public bus stop up the road and went back into Florence. We wanted to visit the inside of the cathedral. We were blown away when we first saw it. The intricate details carved into the marble on the outside of the building were mesmerising. Beautiful red, white and green coloured stone which represents faith, hope & charity, and not the Italian flag as some people think. (The stuff you learn on a walking tour!)
We joined the long line to visit the inside. It moved quite quickly so wasn’t a problem.
With great anticipation we walked through one of the magnificent doors to the worlds 5th largest cathedral expecting something amazing and apart from the size of the place, the 24 hour clock and the painted dome above the alter, we were quite disappointed. Good job it was free!
We wandered around a bit more until we found the Mercato Centrale. A huge building which houses the market on the ground floor and a large food hall upstairs full of little eateries. The place was buzzing and the food looked great. We tried some pork dumplings which were divine.
Just enough of a snack to keep us going until teatime.
Our second walking tour of Florence taught us all about the Medici family. A wealthy family that ruled Florence and later Tuscany from the 1400’s for approximately 300 years.
We saw the Medici palaces and learnt about their connections with the Pope. The churches and other religious buildings.
We were given other nuggets of information too. Where Mona Lisa was buried and where Carlo Collodi lived, the man who wrote Pinocchio. And my favourite, which we would have missed because we were always looking up at the amazing buildings, the Vundita Di Vino. Translated, it means Window of Wine.
Basically a medieval off licence where people would knock on the little wooden window and buy wine by the bottle or glass.
The last stop on the tour was the Ponte Vecchio Bridge. The last one standing as the others were destroyed in WW2.
Fisherman lived there in the houses above their shops. They would catch the fish in the Arno river and sell them. The Medici family built the 1km covered walkway between the palaces and over the bridge and decided the fish was too smelly.
So they had the gold and silversmiths move in and the poor fisherman’s families were made to leave.
We were on our way back to the bus stop when we saw part of the Mille Miglia Race. It was an open-road, motorsport endurance race established in 1927 by the young Counts Aymo Maggi and Franco Mazzotti, which took place in Italy twenty-four times from 1927 to 1957. It was the 37th re-enactment, and for once, we were in the right place at the right time.
Another wonderful day in Florence. We returned to Harriet for tea, tired but happy.
The rain came with the weekend so we stayed in Harriet, venturing out in between the showers to do some shopping and filling the van with water etc. and catching up with Homeland on Netflix.
