Last Day in Florence

There are still some sights we havent seen here - can you believe it? We have been walking from morning till we climb the 102 concrete steps up and up to our room with a view. We have a little terrace on top of our room - have to go up yet more steps to get there! All the buildings around us are the same height as we are so we have a great view around. There is a fabulous view of the Duomo glowing over the rooftops (also from our room).

I have been to church so many times mother would be very pleased! Natasha is now tired of the church thing and opted to stay in bed this morning. May also have something to do with the cold both of us have contracted milling around millions of people,going non-stop since we arrived in Italy and being too jazzed to sleep when we get home.

Besides the wonderful art and antiquities there are many shops lining all the main streets, big names of course including Prada, Yves St. Laurent etc. There are at least two leather shops on every street selling soft exquisite leather - Natasha got a beautiful lambskin jacket. She went in the store for shoes, they didnt have her size, she found a great belt, and the next thing she knew she had bought a jacket! What can I say, I wasnt with her and they are very good salespeople! It is lovely - dont think she could get such a jacket for such a good price at home. Sometimes you just have to do these things.....

There is a market that floods about 4 blocks, no cars able to get through, filled with stalls selling inexpensive interesting things. There is also a great indoor market - two huge floors with beautiful fresh fuits and vegetables, alongside wine stands, cheese shops, meat and fish stands. Great musicians in the piazzas at night, artists painting and selling their work, and a round of black market sellers with "gucci" bags and "rolex" watches. The sellers play a great game with the police, since what they are doing is illegal when a polzia comes near they grab up their booty in white sheets and walk or just stand completely innocent, the polizia are not 5 feet away and out come the displays on the street again! Its funny to watch. Most of these guys are black and they speak many languages, certainly enough to play haggeling games with the tourists.

We are off by train tomorrow for Venice for three nights, Pisa for one night, and then to the Cinque Terra on the west coast of Italy - the Italian Riviera before hitting France.

More travels....

We did successfully make it home, following spring as we moved north. No time to post as I had to begin planning for a trip to Europe with Natasha. We are now in Florence Italy for 7 nights.

We landed in Rome, were awestruck with the opulance of the sights of the Vatican. Everything is so grand. Also awestruck with the colleseum, the forum and the pantheon. Loved the pantheon. There were many smaller churches we wandered into with much more intimate and spiritual feelings than St. Peters. An incredible amount of art and antiquity in this city. Hard to believe that buildings - and roads - built centuries ago are still standing, continue to be used and remain in good shape! In Canada we have nothing to compare - we knock things down before they get even a bit old!

We walked and walked, with aching feet and legs we fell into bed each night. Now we are in good shape - yesterday we walked up all 465 steps to the top of the Duomo in Florence (round and round, narrower and narrower, darker and darker, warmer and warmer, less and less oxygen, feelings of opression, then people started to come down! using the same staircase as us!! Very cozy indeed. Not for the faint of heart - quite claustrophobic. What an amazing view of the city from tiny (in comparison) coppula on top! I am sure Lorne would have loved it - NOT!

We then spent three nights in Siena - an old walled city that was quite amazing too. And of course all a lovely siena color! More fantastic cathedrals and hours of wandering the steep medieval narrow cobblestone hilly alleys of this ancient city. &Thank goodness for maps - even if they dont have all the names of the streets on them. And just try to find that wonderful restaurant we passed!!! Drank ciante in a cool wine tasting cellar with Alesander, a lovely Italian man who charmed us in the piazza del Campo - where the fabulous and amazing historical paulo horse race is. Got beautiful flags (about the size of large scarfs) from three of the twelve districts that compete in this race.

We are immersed in art here in Florence, so far I am loving being saturated every museum is better than the last - the Uffizi gallery, the Palazzo Vecchio, the Pitti Palace, The Bargello museum- Natasha is enjoying it too and she is very good at picking up Italian quickly. There is a Parisian guest at the hostel and Natasha is also very good at remembering her French and communicates well with her too! This will be a real asset when we get to France! Most everyone we come across in Florence and in Rome speaks English (a bit- certainly more than we speak Italian!). I keep speaking Spanish - doesnt work so well.....

Next is Venice, then..... the Cinque Terra??? perhaps, if we can 1. find a place to stay and 2. figure out how to get there from Venice.