Florence

We arrived in Florence Wednesday Eve after a long day of travel. We left Pittsburgh Tuesday evening, arrived at London Heathrow the following morning, then took a National Express bus to Gatwick to get our flight to Florence. From the airport, we caught a tram into the center city and then walked the final 20 minutes . It was 8:00 PM until we arrived at our guest house, named Florest. The proprietor, Daniele, meet us for a late check in. He was very hospitable. Despite it being a long travel day, everything went smoothly and on time.

We slept in this morning, got some breakfast, and then walked to the cathedral (Duomo). Just walking around the outside was magnificent and supposedly more impressive than the interior. They are in the process of cleaning the marble and one of our pictures compares before and after.

We had a 12:30 admission to the Galleria dell Accademia where the Michaelangelo status of David is housed, along with many other statues, paintings, and a display of musical instruments.

From there we headed to the Uffizi Gallery to view works of the Italian Renaissance matters including Leonardo, Michaelangelo, and Rafael.

Next we headed to the river Arno, as we walked to a sporting goods store to buy trekking poles. Once there, we didn't like the price so we headed to another and bought them from a shop that appeared to me staffed by a father and two young daughters.

After a brief stop at our guest house, we headed out to dinner based on the recommendation of our host, Daniele. However, we went without reservations and were turned away. We asked for a recommendation there and went to Perseus where we had a nice dinner.

It was now close to 11:00 PM so we returned to the hotel. We walked over 10 miles and spent more hours on our feet than that would represent as we were standing looking at lots of things.Read more