I know I’m now a bit too far behind my trip – blogging when there is so much to see is hard work! So here’s trying for a bit of catch up.
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| S. Maria del Fiore Cathedral |
Getting from Biasso to Venice was again a test of my newly acquired public transport skills. Bus to La Spezia, transfer trains at Pisa at again at Florence. But you can’t go through those famous cities without choosing one to spend a couple of hours in. So, arriving in Florence, I eventually found where to store my bag and found tourist information. I told them I had 3 hours and asked what I should do. The lady at the help desk smiled, took a map and a highlighter and drew a line down a road and a circle for an area. "Head this way to see the main Cathedral and the bridge. Anything around that area is good."
So that’s what I did. Florence, I found, was full of tourists and Japanese tour groups all will cameras. But I eventually found my way down the main road and as the road rounded the bend, the view opened up to a massive structure ahead that towered over the surrounding buildings (considering they were 4 stories each it’s not that easy to do). This was the S. Maria del Fiore Cathedral. Is really was a very impressive building. Beautiful architecture and obviously with a queue out the door and around the block for people to go inside and see.
I avoided this and took a walk around the square where yes… I found it… the ultimate temptation - the Lindt shop. A shop purely dedicated to that most beautiful of melt in the mouth chocolate. My budget was tested here but I restrained remembering the slab of chilli Lindt chocolate already in my bag due to a half-price sale in Switzerland.
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| Porte Vecchio |
I then wended my way to the bridge forgetting what city I was in and was surprised by a magnificent sight. Sure enough, there was the famous Ponte Vecchio, the jewellery bridge full of tiny shops lining the sidewalk. The shop fronts shone with the amount of gold in the windows. The tourist line slowed to a crawl as everyone gawked in at the many treasures. In these shop windows was my first taste of Venitian glass. Stunning stuff – oh if I didn’t have a budget I would have been so happy. So again I waited for Venice (which I’m really chuffed I did as I got more than one third off the price in Venice).
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| Fountains nearby |
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| More love locks |
I wondered to the outside of the palace with too little time to explore inside. Finding my way back, I paused for a slice of vegetarian pizza on a side street. While I was eating, a man with an accordion started playing outside a shop through an alleyway – so I even had a free accompaniment to my meal. He wasn’t half bad either. All in all I was rather chuffed with my little interlude in my travel day.
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| Gold doors opposite Cathedral |
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| Gold shop windows |
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| View from the Bridge |
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| View from near palace |
I think at this point an ode to Italian ice-cream would be in order…. gelato is hands down the best ice-cream I've had. It beats the Woolworths "tin roof" any day. Everyone told me to have the ice-cream before I went – well they weren’t lying. It is gorgeous stuff and I allowed myself 3 scoops a day while I was in Italy. I only broke with that tradition on the last day in Italy where I had 4 scoops of the stuff. I think my favourite flavours were cream, yoghurt, bacio (means kisses and is basically chocolate and hazelnut mix), coffee, nutella and dark chocolate flavours.
So, on to Venice…
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