Sunday, June 3, 2012

We were all packed up and ready to go long before it was time to go. Our bus wasn’t to leave until just past eleven, but when we arrived at the bus stop there was a bus sitting and ready to leave in just ten minutes. Our bus was to have been a “rapido” from Siena to Florence, but we decided being on the bus a bit longer was better than sitting and waiting so we took the “ordinair”. We made only two stops and then we were through to Florence, arriving just a few minutes later than our rapido would have been leaving Siena.

It seems like a long time since we were in Florence and the crowds have multiplied in the meantime. We were too early to check into our room, but we were able to leave our heavy packs and set out to explore.

We had thought we would visit the Boboli Gardens, but Pat had been doing some research and the reviews for it weren’t very good. We set out over the Ponte Vecchio and stopped at the Mercato for lunch (this is where we had those yummy caramel cream puffs when we were here the last time).

Since we were headed in the right direction we started to climb up to Piazzali Michelangiolo. And what a climb it was. The view from the top was spectacular – you can see all of Florence as well as a lot of the countryside. I felt the ambience was somewhat spoiled by the tacky souvenir stands and folks selling “junk” off the sidewalks.

It was too hot to be doing such a climb and I was really feeling the heat. There was very little shade to be found, but we did our best while we drank a large container of water. We still had to face the walk down, but we found a garden that wandered around the slope and took us most of the way.

After another stop for water we headed back to the hotel to check into our lovely, air-conditioned room and had a little siesta. I was having a dream (nightmare) that we were with a tour group again, and this leader wasn’t nearly as nice as the one we had.

We were having dinner in my dream and that will be our next excursion. Hopefully it will be cooler.

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