Florence, Tuscany, Italy
After an early brekkie we saw Urs off to the local bus for her trip to the airport & waved goodbye......will cath up with her in 5 days on the plane at Frankfurt.
I had read the opera house in Venice was a must see, as we did not get a chance to experience an opera or ballet performance Di & I decided to do a self guided audio tour of Teatro La Fenice.
Its name reflects its sad history, that is to "rise from the ashes". Despite losing the use of three theatres to fire, the first in 1774 after the city's leading house was destroyed and rebuilt but not opened until 1792; the second fire came in 1836 & rebuilding was completed within a year. However, the third fire was the result of arson. It destroyed the house in 1996 leaving only the exterior walls, but it was rebuilt and re-opened in November 2004. It has retained all of the beauty & grandeur of days gone by, including the 'Royal box' built for Napoleon with gilted statues, mirrors & plush seating.
With the tour finished we started back towards the hotel to check out & do some final shopping before boarding our train to Florence.
The train to journey to Florence was over in no time, took about 1hr 45mins providing some great views along the way.
Florence's SMN stazione was crazy busy, we worked out which way we had to exit & tried to follow the directions from our apartment owner. Gay had also downloaded the map earlier in the day, without that & some help from a nice local, who knows where we would have ended up???? The directions we were given didn't help much at all. We found the side street but didn't realise our apartment entrance was in a little square, eventually made contact with our host who came looking for us, we were only a few metres from the apartment, which was only a few metres from the Piazza Duomo & Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. We were so close to all of the sights, we could walk to everything worth seeing!!
After settling in Di & I went exploring. We walked back through the Piazza Duomo & stopped for a coffee & to get an idea of where we were headed. When crossing the Piazza del Republica we came across a parade, which we found out later was to 'promote' the Palio di Siena, a horse race that is held twice each year, on 2 July and 16 August, in Siena. Ten horses and riders, bareback and dressed in the appropriate colours, represent ten of the seventeen contrade, or city wards. It is a very big deal & draws a huge crowd.
Finally made our way to Piazza della Signoria to admire the architecture of the Palazzo Vecchio & the many statues in Loggia dei Lanzi (& fake David one, as original is inside the museum). We saw the Uffizi & Accademia Galleries then continued on to stroll over the Ponte Vecchio toawrds the Palazzo Pitti.
The Palazzo Pitti, also known as the Pitti Palace, is a vast, mainly Renaissance, palace that is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio. It is home to many important museums & houses important collections of paintings and sculpture, works of art, porcelain, silver and period costumes.
It was getting late so we decided to have dinner in a little cafe opposite the Palazzo Pitti & discuss where we would venture to tomorrow.
We chatted for a while with an Australian girl who picked our accents straight away.....she has been living & working in Berlin for about 2 years. I think I have nmentioned before in other entries, we have cone across so many Australians, expecially in Italy. The accent is unmistakeable!!!
After dinner we walked through the back streets towards our apartment & found the local supermarket to stock up on supplies for the apartment. We had decided to have an early start to catch the bus to Siena next day so it was off to bed to do some Google research.
I had read the opera house in Venice was a must see, as we did not get a chance to experience an opera or ballet performance Di & I decided to do a self guided audio tour of Teatro La Fenice.
Its name reflects its sad history, that is to "rise from the ashes". Despite losing the use of three theatres to fire, the first in 1774 after the city's leading house was destroyed and rebuilt but not opened until 1792; the second fire came in 1836 & rebuilding was completed within a year. However, the third fire was the result of arson. It destroyed the house in 1996 leaving only the exterior walls, but it was rebuilt and re-opened in November 2004. It has retained all of the beauty & grandeur of days gone by, including the 'Royal box' built for Napoleon with gilted statues, mirrors & plush seating.
With the tour finished we started back towards the hotel to check out & do some final shopping before boarding our train to Florence.
The train to journey to Florence was over in no time, took about 1hr 45mins providing some great views along the way.
Florence's SMN stazione was crazy busy, we worked out which way we had to exit & tried to follow the directions from our apartment owner. Gay had also downloaded the map earlier in the day, without that & some help from a nice local, who knows where we would have ended up???? The directions we were given didn't help much at all. We found the side street but didn't realise our apartment entrance was in a little square, eventually made contact with our host who came looking for us, we were only a few metres from the apartment, which was only a few metres from the Piazza Duomo & Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. We were so close to all of the sights, we could walk to everything worth seeing!!
After settling in Di & I went exploring. We walked back through the Piazza Duomo & stopped for a coffee & to get an idea of where we were headed. When crossing the Piazza del Republica we came across a parade, which we found out later was to 'promote' the Palio di Siena, a horse race that is held twice each year, on 2 July and 16 August, in Siena. Ten horses and riders, bareback and dressed in the appropriate colours, represent ten of the seventeen contrade, or city wards. It is a very big deal & draws a huge crowd.
Finally made our way to Piazza della Signoria to admire the architecture of the Palazzo Vecchio & the many statues in Loggia dei Lanzi (& fake David one, as original is inside the museum). We saw the Uffizi & Accademia Galleries then continued on to stroll over the Ponte Vecchio toawrds the Palazzo Pitti.
The Palazzo Pitti, also known as the Pitti Palace, is a vast, mainly Renaissance, palace that is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio. It is home to many important museums & houses important collections of paintings and sculpture, works of art, porcelain, silver and period costumes.
It was getting late so we decided to have dinner in a little cafe opposite the Palazzo Pitti & discuss where we would venture to tomorrow.
We chatted for a while with an Australian girl who picked our accents straight away.....she has been living & working in Berlin for about 2 years. I think I have nmentioned before in other entries, we have cone across so many Australians, expecially in Italy. The accent is unmistakeable!!!
After dinner we walked through the back streets towards our apartment & found the local supermarket to stock up on supplies for the apartment. We had decided to have an early start to catch the bus to Siena next day so it was off to bed to do some Google research.
2025-05-22