Finding Florence

Our last tour from the M/s Riviera was to Florence on October 29, 2015. Early that morning, we pulled into Livorno, Tuscany and then boarded a bus for the 90-minute ride through the world-renouned Tuscan scenery.

A tuscan farm house framed by the vineyards in front and the
green hills behind

these are undoubtedly Sangiovese grape vines

Olive trees on the hills with a castle in the background

We had an excellent guide on this excursion, a native of Florence, Antonio was well-versed on everything that was Florentine. As we passed through the rural areas west of Florence, he reminded us that this was Chianti country and the vines we were passing were mostly Sangiovese grapes that must make up at least 80% of a Chianti wine. In the region that was south and west of Florence, Chianti Classico is produced and it is always recognizable on the wine store shelf by the iconic Black Rooster seal.

Again, we would walk through the old part of town and in the case of Florence we would work from the north, past the cathedral to the Arno River and then circle back past the town hall to The Basilica of Santa Croce. There, we were given 2 hours to have lunch, shop and visit the Basilica of Santa Croce. I was able to measure the distance we had traveled on foot during our various walking tours with a trusty iPhone App and this day's stroll turned out to be one of the longer hikes, coming in at just short of 10 kilometres. Needless to say, we did not have to go to the gym when we got back to the ship.

In Florence, we spent time visiting the outside of the Florence Cathedral, Santa Maria del Fiore or the Duomo. The building is notable for the massive dome, the red, green and white marble facade and the massive bronze doors. The cathedral complex includes two other beautiful structures, the baptistry, Battisterio di San Giovanni and Giotto's bell tower.

the Battisterio di San Giovanni just in front of the Florence Cathedral

The front of the cathedral

The door to the Baptistry - this is a copy of the original that  was
damaged in a flood and removed to a safer place. The copy is very impressive.

Giotto's Bell Tower

the massive dome from beside the cathedral

the Dome from a distance

From the cathedral we sauntered down towards the Arno River to check out Il Porcellino. This was a fun diversion to a statue near the river. This bronze copy of an original statue made by Pietro Tacca faces south towards the river in an alleyway that has a very medieval feel to it. According to our guide if you rub the snout you will return to Florence. The snout is rubbed so often every day that it has a polished sheen as you can see in the photos.

Shortly after stroking the snout, we walked onto Ponte Vecchio. this medieval bridge spans the narrowest part of the river and although there has been a bridge here since Roman times, this version dates from 1345 A.D. and as in many bridges from that era, the sides of the bridge are lined with shops. It used to be all butchers shops and now it is Jewelry shops. Butchers could easily get rid of their unsold product at the end of the day but today, the Jewellers tend to hang on to their unsold merchandise. 

In the first photo following this paragraph, you see a yellow structure above the Jewelry shops on the bridge. This is the famous Vasari's Corridor, a sort of +15 walkway for the De'Medici ruling family of Florence to use when they moved from palace to palace. They did not want to mingle with the public. 

Jewelry stores on Ponte Vecchio and on the upper right the famous
Vasari's Corridor

the Arno River from Ponte Vecchio

The next major stop on our walk through Florence was the Palazzo Vecchio, the town hall of Florence. Here in the town square, in front of the Palazzo, is a copy of the statue of David, by Michelangelo.  The original is in a museum called the Galleria dell'Accademia which we did not see. We also passed by the Uffizi Gallery which houses innumerable priceless art pieces that people will line up for five hours to view.  Fortunately, there are other original sculptures by other notable artists right there in the square that you can view for free (see below). 

copy of Michelangelo's David facing Rome

The Fountain of Neptune by Bartolomeo Ammannati

Cosimo I de'Medici a Grand Duke of Tuscany by Giambologna

Hercules and Cacus by Baccio Bandinelli

...and there were others.

From Palazzo Vecchio we moved on and worked our way towards Piazza Santa Croce. This square was where we stopped for lunch at a trattoria in front of the Basilica Santa Croce. After lunch Gym paid 6 Euros to enter the basilica while Mrs. Gym checked out some of the shops. 

We had another authentic Italian pizza. These are thin crust pizzas that are big on tomato sauce and short on everything else. I'm sorry but Gym likes the bastard North American variety with more cheese and toppings that you can see. The establishment was called Finisterrae and was in the corner of the square nearest the entrance to the basilica. It rates 3 out of 5.

For me, the climax of the day was entering into the Basilica Santa Croce and seeing the burial place of 3 extra-ordinary Italians. Not only is Michelangelo buried there but so is Galileo, the great astronomer and Machiavelli, the father of modern Political Science. More recently Marconi, the inventor of the radio has been buried there and probably many more notable people that I did not have the time to discover.

For her part, Mrs. Gym found the leather goods quite pricey and successfully rebuffed all the approaches by the merchants.

Santa Croce from the square

inside facing the alter

looking back from the alter to the front door

only the central portion of the tomb of Michelangelo

The tomb of Galileo

The tomb of Machiavelli

We finished our walking tour of Florence but there was one more place to see on the way back to the port. We are glad we saw it once in our lives but we will never willingly go back there.

the biggest tourist trap in Italy

We re-boarded the ship one more time. The next stop was the last one for our little cruise. We were now going to spend three nights in Rome. 

Some chinese guy picked two successive winners on the roulette table so he was certain to get the helm on that last night's cruise.