Last day in Florence

Miles: 12.0 Steps: 28151
Flights stairs: 40

We had a really busy last day in Florence. We decided to get an early start and beat the heat for the climb up the Giotto Bell tower - 413 steps, in 85° to 95° heat. It was a tough one. It did my old heart good to see even the youngest people reach the top and not look any better than me. Huffing and puffing covered in sweat. Beautiful view tho, so worth it.

Then to the Florence baptistery. I guess in the old days you couldn’t enter a Catholic Church unless you were baptized. It made it difficult - so the baptistery was a separate building from the church. The gold ceiling was quite the site.

We headed to the Uffizi museum next and saw hundreds of sculptures, and some amazing paintings - most notably the “birth of Venus”. Jordan studied it in school so really enjoyed seeing it in person.

We split up at this point - Jordan went back to the hostel to enjoy the pool for awhile and I kept at it. I went to the Basilica of Santa Croce. It’s famous for being Michelangelo’s burial site. And then to the Santa Reparata (the underground ancient remains of the original Florence cathedral). Pretty interesting.

I popped into the Opera del duomo museum and saw more amazing pieces of art, and then decided the pool was sounding pretty good for my overheated body, so headed back for a swim. The pool was ice cold, which was nice after being so hot.

After cooling down a bit and having a great Italian dinner, we walked a ways to the highest point in Florence - the San Mianato Al monte to get a glimpse of the city from above, and then over to the Pizzale Michelangelo for sunset and to see the city at night. It’s a beautiful atmosphere with live street performers singing and such. Overall, had a great couple days seeing FlorenceRead more