Day 3 – From Venice to Florence

A nice late start had us saying goodbye to Venice 8.30, and with one stop on the road we arrived in Florence by 12.30. As an aside, Italian gas stations have way better food than Canadian ones, but are much more complicated. We’re still having trouble figuring out where to pay or how to leave the store. We’ve also never had so much confusion over what kind or water to buy – “natuale” or “fizzante” is an important distinction.

After an illegal drop-off by our bus driver we had short walk along the Arno River and we arrived in the beautiful Piazza Santa Croce. Great pizza and calzone and lots of art vendors. We then had a demonstration on the manufacture of leather boxes, and how to tell fake and real leather apart. Leather is one of the things Florence is most famous for, and everything is priced accordingly. Don’t worry, as far as we know no new leather jackets are coming home on the plane.

Next a walking tour brought us to the Ponte Vecchio (famous for jewelry), the Duomo and other landmarks, and finished at the Accademia where we could see the original David by Michelangelo. Everyone who saw it was awestruck.

Free time had people touring the Baptistery, the Duomo, and the Bell Tower with its fantastic views of the city and surrounding Tuscany. Our shopping skills are getting better – those of you that have brought your children to Mexico seem to have given them a bargaining advantage. Kallie will be doing some personal shopping to help our girls get great deals on fake purses. Warren managed to find the perfect wallet while being the first of our group to be late for a scheduled pickup.

Chicken Cacciatore (sorry Paul, no chicken cutlets) was fantastic and a great walk to our bus took us through the streets of Florence after dark. 45 minutes later and we were at our hotel (very modern, complete with table linen substituting for towels). Everyone loves that you have to leave your room key in a slot on your wall if you want to turn on your lights. Bed check at 10 and up again at 7. Tomorrow is San Giminiano, a medieval village, and free time back in Florence to hit the landmarks. Everyone seems in high spirits even though the days are long and the feet are very tired. So far we’ve had compliments from our hotel and our tour director on the behavior of our group – you should all be very proud of the way they are handling themselves over here. The next week will go by very quickly. Ciao!