The Wandering Genealogist: 11 kms today - and my legs think my watch has understated the distance covered

Back at the hotel after the longest walking day yet, I'll try to stay awake to complete this post. I took the elevator to the 1st floor instead of the stairs when we got back. I could not manage one more step up. In case you don't know, the ground floor here is 0, and so I am on what we would call the 2nd floor but here it is the first floor.

Our rooms here are tiny, have no kettle and thus no supplies for coffee or tea, no place to put my suitcase other than in front of the little closet. The rod in the closet is so high I can barely reach up to put the hangers on the rod. But it's very clean and I have a balcony. I leave the balcony door open at night to get some fresh air because it's supposed to be too early for mosquitoes. It's not. I had one mozzie join me this morning, but I'm happy to say his life indoors was short.

The food here is pretty good and finally the portions are not huge. There is great coffee in the morning and steamed milk that keeps it hot, and of course, tasty. I'll try not to take a croissant at breakfast tomorrow.

We are on staying on the coast and Florence/Firenze is inland. It was at least a 90 minute coach ride to the parking lot where tour coaches can drop off their passengers - for the measly sum of €600!!! Yes - two zeroes. That's just to drop us off, and the same again to pick us up. I'll try not to complain about parking charges at home.

We had a long walk to the place we met our local guide. Michael has more knowledge about Florence and its history in his head, that the average encyclopedia. And my "whisper," or headset, was only working intermittently so I didn't hear everything he had to say. We had a two and a half hour walking tour during which I took my usual overload of photos. They are currently uploading so I hope to have some to put in this post before I call it a day.

The wine window. During the plague you could place your order and receive your wine via one of these windows on the street. I wonder if they were reopened during Covid.

On the Ponte Vecchio - jewellery stores
selling some very lovely and very expensive baubles. The
little round windows allowed light into the corridor used
by the Medicis to move between their homes and "offices"
without having to mix with the common folk.

This art installation has something to do with climate change.
If you figure it out, please let me know.

You can look up all that history for yourself. I focussed on the architecture. The streets are narrow and at first I thought it was a pedestrian-only area. Nope! Watch out for cars and bicyles and loaded hand carts. They won't stop for you, so you have to get out of their way. The streets and plazas and every location in sight were all very crowded. It's not even tourist season quite yet but you could have fooled me.

After the guided tour. during which we learned about so many interesting buildings and landmarks, we headed to the huge indoor market which would have been worth a visit in itself. However, we had lunch in mind and the location was new to Approach tours. It's soon to be a bad memory. We had three tiny samples of meat served in tiny paper cups similar to those used to dispense medication in hospitals at home. Our guide asked for bread and we got some. They did provide bottles of water - some still and some fizzy. So that we didn't go hungry, Sandra and Francesca ordered pizzas for us to share. We had passed some lovely looking restaurants on our trek to the upstairs gallery in the market. Maybe next time they'll be part of the tour instead of the weird offerings we had.

We had the option after lunch of a tour of the Uffizzi Gallery, along with thousands of our dearest foreign friends, or free time to wander. We wandered back to the Ponte Vechhio where I purchased a lovely pair of earrings. They were not like the ones I'd been looking for, as a pair similar to what I wanted, cost €734 or close to $1,000 CAD. Call me cheap, but I settled for lovely pair of twisted oval hoops in 9K gold. I suppose the high cost of gold is fine if you have purchased some in place of stock, but my budget does not stretch to 24 Carat or even just 18K.

This purchase was followed by a celebratory gelato. Mine was a combo of dark chocolate and peanut.

We wandered slowly back to the square with the statue of David, which is only one of many many statues in that location. Each one has a story. Sadly, I recall very little. I do recall that the statue of David is not the original, but a lifesize copy.

We still had a little time to kill and did so happily with Lattes for two of us and a beer for the other. Choices will not be attributed to the individual participants. But mine had caffeine, just fyi.

Then it was time to meet the guides for our walk back to the bus. We did so at a pretty steady pace on very tired legs. It took half an hour. Nothing looked as good as our bus with the doors open for boarding. The drive back included some rush hour traffice but we weren't in a hurry. The scenery was lovely.

All the homes seem to be made of concrete and painted either beige, yellow or light salmon. Here and there are some old stone houses. I wonder if those are the only options so that the common perception of a Tuscan landscape remains unblemished.

Dinner was nice but I was not hungry and ate little. I've done my laundry and am about to tuck myself in for the night. Fingers crossed that it doesn't rain overnight and my things are dry in the morning. We do have one more night here so it won't be too much bother if they are still damp.

Here are a couple of other sights: