Florence: The Cradle of the Renaissance.

This is the city on whose streets Michelangelo played as a child, and in whose studios the Italian Renaissance had started!

The train ride from San Remo to Florence took 7 hours by regional trains, which are the cheapest, but also the slowest. We seemed to stop in every little town on the way.  We enjoyed the Tuscan country side, and the gentle swaying motion and repeating clicking had a soothing effect on us. We took a quick trip down memory lane as the train from Genoa to La Spetzia went through Cinque Terre, which we visited 4 years ago.

We book most of our on-the-road accommodation through Booking.com as it is easy to navigate, has no cancellation fee unless it is a really last minute booking, and no payment upfront. When we arrived at Hotel Veneto, located 15 minutes walk from the train station, they had no water supply on a whole floor, so we were offered a room on the 3rd floor in another building just around the corner with a great view - lucky for us.  Notice El Duomo on the far left!

The ancient Roman colony of Florentia was founded in 59 BC. Between the 13th and 14th century, at the time of Dante and Boccaccio, when some of the iconic buildings like the Duomo (Cathedral)

and Vecchio Palazzo were built, the city enjoyed a fertile cultural period, and Florence confirmed its economic power in Europe, particilarly with the introduction of the the gold florin, the first truly international currency.

In the 15th century, at the height of the Renaissance, Florence achieved its greatest moment, thanks to the concentration of brilliant personalities like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. Florence is called 'The Cradle of Renaissance', and since 1982 the historic center of Florence has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

At the Academia Gallery  we saw Michelangelo's famous statue ' David' as well as many religious paintings, sculptures and busts. David is a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture created between 1501 and 1504. It is made of marble and is 5.17 meters high.

It is amazing to watch the sun set over Florence from Piazzale Michelangelo, a balcony over the city, where there is a replica of the 'David' statue.

When the sun sets over the Arno, it overwhelms Florence with tides of color that makes all the sharp lines dim and faint and turn the solid city to a city of dreams - Mark Twain

If you feel like a delicious local lunch or dinner in a less touristic area, we can recommend walking across Ponte Vecchio, which is a medieval stone closed-spandrel segmental arch bridge over the Arno River. It still has shops build along it. Butchers initially occupied the shops, and now it is jewellers, art dealers and souvenir shops.

Continue up the road for about 100 metres and turn right into to Piazza Santo Spirito, where we had a delicious dinner at Gusta Osteria, and we were also recommended the Osteria Santo Spirito, but we didn't eat there.

The Leonardo da Vinci Museum featured drawings and replica of some of Leonardo's many inventions. Already in 1485 Leonardo invented a projected a tortoise shaped vehicle, reinforced with metal sheet, equipped with and internal sighting turret and cannons.

Leonardo also designed a revolving crane, a hydraulic saw (we saw one in operation in Switzerland), a parachute, and many other inventions.

We chose to ignore pangs of guilt as we would rather relax in a square and watch the world go by than trudge on sore feet through another breathtaking palace, museum or church.

You can buy a Florence card for Euro75 valid for 3 days and it gives you access to 50 museums, and urban busses and trams. We were not interested in that many museums, so we didn't do that, but then it is recommended to book tickets to the museums online before you arrive or go to the various ticket offices and book for the following day, as the line ups for people without tickets were LONG, and it is uncomfortable standing in line for hours in 35 degrees sunshine.

One day we rented bicycles and biked along the river to San Antonio about 7 km outside of Florence. It was nice to get away from the heat and all the tourists. The temperature that day was in the low 40's.

)'

Every afternoon we have treated ourselves to gelato, and nobody makes ice cream better than the Italians; the most expensive one was Euro 10, and it was worth every bite - we forgot to check the price before buying it! Always check the price first in high tourist areas, particularly near train stations!

We bought salad, tomatoes, cheese and tuna at a supermarket, and had dinner by the river, finishing off the evening by watching the sunset from the bridge with a glass of Chianti Classico. 

What a perfect way to say 'Ciao Florence'.