Florence - Sunday September 5th

What a beautiful city ! - We came in by train from Rome - the trains are awesome - so fast. Got to the Florence (Firenze) station ok - Deb says she would have been totally lost if it hadn't been for me, somewhat outside her element. In order to give us some walking room we checked our bags at the main Termini - that worked fine as they gave us 5 hours for 3.500 Euro per bag. We headed out on foot. That's the way to see an old city - of course if we had tried to drive it things would have be chaos. The roads are so very narrow - so many of the streets are one way and the people drive like maniacs. Then there are the people who ride the motor bikes - I wonder what the mortality rate is - they never stop - in fact no one does stop at the stop signs, they just keep motoring through.

When walking down one of the narrow roads we came across a beautiful, small hotel - Hotel Benivieni - We talked with Sony and she gave us a very good rate as compared to the "market price" of 220.00 Euro. But when we asked to see the room she wasn't too happy with us. And her father was a surley old goat. But apparently he was the only who who knew how to use the computer to check us in, so Bob had to be extra nice in his "Italian". We got everyone settled and happy. The room was quite lovely with ceilings that must have been 14' and the best of all air-conditioning. The bath was all marble - the only down side was the corner shower - Deb had to turn around in it and I had to open the door just to fit. We hadn't been in the room for very long when the bells from the Duomo started to ring. God was that a lovely touch. We threw open the shutters and leaned out over the window sill - looking down on the cobble stone roadway and were immediately transported back a thousand years. The bells rang throughout the day and into the night.

The weather here till now has been exceptional, only hot with the average of 28 to 30 degrees C, but the skys are clear and there has been no sign of any inclement weather.

From the hotel we started off on our sightseeing for the day. First to the Duomo - this is amazing to think that a church can be so big and elaborate. Tours of the church didn't start until 1:30 pm, so we thought we'd head off to see what else we could find. We went next to the Baptristy which is adjoining the Duomo where to took lots of pictures - the ceiling of the Baptristy was so ornate - The doors leading into this structure were called the "Gates of Paradise" and were gold (these are repo's with the original doors in the museum). Several sculptures surrounded the interior and also a pond. Deb and I tossed in the coins and made the obligitory wish to come back some day. Afterwards we headed for the Pritti Museum (originally owned by the Medici's back in the 14th century) and visited this incredible gallery of Renaissance art. Some are so dark, so religious....Deb says give her sculpture anytime. All in all it was quite impressive. Down the road to the Ponti Vecchio - a bridge that crosses the Arno. All these very small shops - mostly jewllery - Deb was in heaven. The display cases were all on the front of the shop, with the interior of the store only big enough to hold the boss and 1 potential client. Deb looked a several pieces of jewellery but didn't buy - thank heavens. The Euro exchange rates made here think twice I guess. From there we headed back to the Duomo for the tour. The green white and pink marble facade is absolutely breathtaking - inside the main ceiling in the door with all the art is 4 times larger than that of the dome at the Basillica in Rome which was painted by Michelangelo.

With the binoculars you could see cracks but it didn't detract from the beauty of the dome. The floor was different colored marble and so beautiful. It is mind boggling to think of the craftmanship and labour that went into creating this huge, building.

We then proceeded to the Bell tower adjacent to the Duomo. I just had to climb this sucker (I'm paying for it during these last two day) with a total of 414 steps which equals 828 when you come back down. I'm not sure how many steps there are at the CN Tower, but the old legs were just a burnin. The stairway was just wide enough that both shoulders rubbed the walls on both sides - it was somewhat of an event when you came across someone going up or coming down.

We decided to have dinner but really didn't what too much, so we bough panini sandwiches, pizza and some pasta salad - Do we eat in a restaurant - NO - We headed back over to the Duomo and sat on the marble steps and watched the parade of people go by. We listened to the different languages being spoken and watched as the day started to end. The various shop keepers with their portable stands, closing up for the night, most of the tourists off to bed. We continued to sit there amoungst a number of the local "iti" boys, we had a laugh as these 5 or 6 young italian studs started to "rate" some of the lovely young women was they walked by. They didn't speak - it was was sort of a musical rating - depending how large the breasts and how long the legs the higher that 0000000000000 pitch went.

After "our on the steps dinner", we headed off for our night walk which was down to the Arno, crossing the bridge and back over Ponto Vechicco when we came across the Uffizi Museum (too bad it was closed as it's one of the premier galleries in all of Italy). Outside in the Piazza there was a replica of Michelangelo's David - he was an impressive man and huge in stature. Deb thought the details of the human figure was quite "amazing". Right next to the David, there was a fountain of Neptune by Gotti from 1356 that again was awesome to behold.

We walked back to the hotel exhausted and fell into bed. All this in just two days - Again for two old people we have really cranked this into high gear.

Day 3 - Monday, September 6th (Labour Day in Canada)
The hotel supplied us with breakfast and off we were on foot once again - this time looking for a rental car. After several blocks we found an Avis rental spot that rented us a bright blue Opel. Our luggage was in the hotel in a section where they did not allow cars - yet another logistics problem for Bob to solve. It ended up that I parked the car illegally down by the river (Arno) and left Deb to protect it. She's not real good at maps so I knew that at least I could find the hotel and return within a reasonable time. I dragged back all the luggage to the car and set out on our next destination - Pisa and the leaning tower. We had maps, sure. It's been 20 years plus since I drove in Italy and now I remember why. With wrong turns, one way streets, running through stops signs and fighting the locals on the roundabouts, I finally made it to the autostratta.

Heading toward Pisa we did find it with only "minimal discussions and comments about one's map reading abilities". Not much to say about the town of Pisa but what a sight the tower is. It is so impressive and does look like it's about to topple over. Also the adjoining church and baptristy are equally impressive. Deb could not take her eyes off the tower - it really leans much more that you would have thought.

And what a shame if it does one day fall - we took the pictures of both of us holding or pushing the tower as everyone does in the square.

We left Pisa and started to head to Cinque Terre - went a little too far so had to turn around on the autostratta
(boy that little Opel goes like stink - up to 200 km and it just hummed - felt a little like Gilles). We passed Carrerra, the town where the Carrerra marble comes from and actually was the same town that Michelangelo visited for the marble that he used to sculpt David. After some twist, turns and the odd direction from a local, we found the correct way to Rio Maggiore which is the most souther town of the five ancient cities. I would not have thought that they could build buildings on the side of a mountain, but who knew. This place is ancient and the houses are about 6 to 7 stories high, resting gently on the slopes drop off into the Mediterrean. The town is restricted for cars, so we had to park up on top and walk down (we should have taken our luggage on this trip because we had to walk back up and down again once we booked the room.

We found Mar-Mar which was suggested to us by Wayne Dalton, and ended up getting a nice apartment for about 65 E and 10E for parking. The down side, certainly no air conditioning for that kind of price. Outside the shutters in our room we can see the ocean - so blue - across the other way from our window is a clothes line with underwear and bra's drying in the breeze. Below is a restaurant - we can hear every word said, every clink of silverware on the plate. Rio Maggiori is very quaint but you need to be half mountain goat and half 4 wheel drive just to walk through the city. Just a little to much for the old folks so we decided to head off the next morning to San Gimingnano, a walled city in Tuscany.

Stay tuned for Day 4 - The Trip to San Gimignano - So far the trip has been incredible with only more to come.