Day 11 - Florence and onto Rome

Friday we departed the Hotel around 0730, another early start. We drove to downtown Florence, most of our group signed up for an optional guided tour, 'Florence's Renaissance Treasures', a walking tour with a local specialist.  We decided to do our own walking tour. 

We were dropped at the Arno River and walked about 3/4 of a mile to Piazza di Santa Croce. This would be our meeting point for pickup around noon and we will depart for Rome. 

Piazza di Santa Croce is a central square in Florence, Italy, named after the beautiful Basilica of Santa Croce that overlooks it. It is massive, the twins are standing on the steps in this photo. 

We left our group and wandered.

Our first stop was at Piazza della Signoria which contains a statue from the late 16th century, Equestrian statue of Cosimo I. We could not help but stop and admire it. 

In this piazza there are a number of interesting statues, I particularly like the one of Perseus with the Head of Medusa.

The square is full of status, including Hercules, David, and Neptune, it is a must see stop in Florence. 

They also have a bit of modern art in the Piazza, I mocked this one. 

We were trying to make our way to Piazza del Duomo in Florence, which contains Cathedral Santa Maria del Fiore, one of the largest churches in the world. 

It is so large it is hard to get a picture.

We explored getting tickets to go inside the Chapel the Tower, The Duomo, and Galileo's Museum, but it seems our time was off. They are available at later times only..some planning is required. 

Regardless, just walking around the Piazzas, there is more culture than we could absorb in one trip.

We had coffee and cannoli's for a morning snack at a cafe in the shadow of the Duomo, it was awesome. 

After our morning cafe, we walked to the Arno River. Ed and I both recall the Arno being key in some of the old WWII movies we watched as kids. 

Today the river is beautiful.

When the Germans retreated from Florence they did blow up every bridge but one on the Arno, Ponte Vecchio.

 Ponte Vecchio is the oldest bridge on the Arno, it has been here in some form since the 1200s; the current bridge was built in 1345. It is not a busy shopping place. 

We were standing on Ponte Vecchio when I spotted the remains of a 14th century satellite dish. :-)

We walked and walked, there is a lot to see in Florence and it was just a nice day to walk. We got our steps in, probably about 5 miles worth. 

After Florence we boarded the bus and set out for Roma. 

We arrived at our hotel about 1600, we got nice rooms with balconies facing the road.  

Our rooms are the second balcony. 

So far the hotels have been outside of the main cities, not fancy but comfortable. The only one we can say we kind of hated was the IBIS in Paris.

We were back on the bus by 1700 and met our local specialist, Tiziana, for a walking tour of Rome. 

Our first stop was the 1900 year old Pantheon. It is just hard to believe it was built in 125AD and is still standing. 

The Romans poured this dome, with a 142 foot diameter, using wooden forms almost 2000 years ago, amazing engineering. 

We passed several places where roman ruins were below the roads; our guide said Rome is like Lasagna, built in layers. 

This picture is about 30ft below the street. 

The Piazza had two beautiful fountains, this is the 4 Rivers. 

We stopped at the Trevi fountain and tossed our coins, so that we will come back to Rome again. 

The lines were long, it took 1/2 hour to get in, but we made it. 

We eventually made our way to Piazza Navona. 

This Piazza was a stadium in Roman times, as can be seen by the oval shape of the Piazza and the ancient staging rooms below the surface.

We ate at the same restaurant June and I ate at in 2018, 4 FIUMI. The girls had the Sea Bass special and the guys had Pasta. It was a nice meal in a great setting. 

We made our way back to our gathering point for our group. 

Not everything goes as planned, a couple in our group are from California and are Hispanic.  Alberto and Margarita have been married for 57 years and are a sweet couple.  Unfortunately, they got separated and we have not been able to find Margarita. Our TD tells us not to worry, the police will find her but he and all of us are obviously very concerned.