FLORENCE

Sunday is another beautiful day, warm and sunny, and we have just two things on the 'must' list - make sure we have our Rome train tickets in order, and if we are going to see the Ufizzi Gallery, Italy's answer to the Louvre, today is the day as it is closed on Monday.  So after a little breakfast at Dei Mori, great coffee and home made bread, we set of for the train station and find ourselves immediately in the middle of a women's 10K.  So well organized with volunteers on almost every corner, we followed the route almost to the train station, enjoying the music at the finish line along the way.  It was great fun and a great way to start the day.

Tickets taken care of, we spent a lot of the day just wandering and sightseeing, took in part of a mass at one of the famous churches, San Marco.  Then, late afternoon, off to the Uffizi to see if we can avoid the long lines we saw all day.  Sure enough, about 5pm, a couple of hours before closing we walked right in, plugged in the Rick Steves audiotour on the phone and were on our way.  I'm sure a good tour - we saw a few of them - would be the best way to see it, I'm never sure how to find the 'good' tour.  So Rick leads the way with a really entertaining and thoughtful guide which we both thoroughly enjoyed.  It was a great two hour tour of Renaissance Art.  That was followed by another fine dinner at a tiny place suggested by our host.   The highlight was either Alex' Green Pizza, or my steak, sliced and seasoned with the finest balsamic vinegar I have ever tasted.  It comes from a farm they buy from and isn't available for sale or I'd certainly have a bottle in my suitcase right now.



After a little wandering around on Monday, Alex allowed as how she would like to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa.  I had never seen it, and since we'd just had a little picnic lunch outside the big Central Market, we were only five minutes from the train station.  Fifteen minutes later we were on a train to Pisa, about  45 minutes away.  About a twenty minute walk through the old part of town and through my impressive map reading skills, we were stumbling around the university, hopelessly lost.  Now Pisa just isn't that big, and a river runs through the middle of it, so getting lost is quite some feat.  A few more blocks and we sighted the masses again, fell into line, and headed off to The Field of Dreams, as the sign identifies the area.  It was a couple hour wait to climb the tower, and really, neither Alex or I had any desire.  I was far more interested in seeing the inside of the Duomo that stands right next to it.  The one thing I wished we'd done differently would be to leave much earlier in the day, as there is a bus that makes the 30 minute ride to the walled city of Lucca, and then an hour back to Florence.  I think Lucca might be a far more interesting destination than Pisa.  Next time.