Florence 3 - Pitti Palace, Boboli Garden

We woke early and felt stranded. I had not loaded yesterday's blog, so no comments to check first thing. It ruined a well-established routine. On the bright side, no phone calls overnight, and less noise, so it felt like a normal, non-lagged Wednesday morning.

Another warm and almst cloudless day in Florence. We headed off towards the Pitti Palace around 8:30, thinking we might find an ATM that did not look suspect on the way. We didn't, and were there well before 9am. Our tickets were for 10, but there was no crowd, and they scanned us in anyway.

The Pitti Palace was a surprise. From the outside it looks quite bland, as if built by ancestors of the people who built the Crows Nest Metro station - the one in red brick. Inside it was like the Uffizi, but far fewer people, even though it was bigger.

The Uffizi might have the top 0.1% of their art, but the Palace has the next 0.1%, and felt far nicer because if was less crowded, and it also had different exhibits. It was also where people had lived, not just wall-space, floor-space and ceiling-space for priceless art. Napoleon's bathroom was quite the thing - not enough shelf space for all Nicolas's bits and pieces, but very light and roomy. Spectacular ceilings, and also spectacular furniture: a table top that looked like a magnificent, fine silk tapestry, but was actually almost microscopic gemstones, not stitches.

The Palace had an exhibition of fashion from the time the Medicis lived there. Strangely, clothes worn by women in the 1700s and 1800s were very similar to some recent fashions. There were sequins like you've never seen, and originals of most 1950s and 1960s designers.

Then the Garden. The people in Mission Beach could teach them a little about mowing, but walking around corners and seeing ancient Roman statues is something special, as well as views over all parts of Florence.

Then a walk through the Treasury of the Grand Dukes: translucent, 2,000 year old cups carved from crystal, all sorts of Russian icons, a small-church sized private chapel (an organ, but not being played), china and glassware from 1600 royal dinners etc. It was fascinating, but almost too much to take in. I can understand looking at a painting, but using a cup like that?

Down into town after wandering through the last of the Palace to find a trustworthy ATM (not that cash is used in many places...), then a hunt through the stalls flogging "genuine Florentine leather" that all had exactly the same items and prices, and the same non-Italian salesmen. Anne had wanted to find the hotel from where they filmed Room with A View... but read that the hotel was real, but the view was not. That was shot elsewhere... so back to the B&B before doing the washing. There is a seedy-looking laundromat just down the road, but the machines worked, so we are loaded up with clean clothes for the big hike.

Tomorrow we get a 9am train to Lucca. That is an unhurried start as the station is only 5 mins away. Florence is spectacular, but it will be wonderful to be away from city-size crowds. Goodness knows what it is like in peak-season.

Dinner at a traditional Tuscan trattoria. We braved a table outside, which was great when the wind dropped. No NYers near us … but four from the Gold Coast, with whom we did not have to talk.

Triangulating from three phones, some 22,800 steps, 17.0km and 56 flightsRead more