Tuesday, September 6, 2022. Trip to Florence

Travel Blog 2 Minutes

Today was a day trip to the beautiful city of Florence. It took about and hour and fifteen minutes to drive from Carpi to the outskirts of Florence. Then we hit gridlock. The traffic in and around Florence is pretty bad. After about 30 minutes we found a parking garage and parked the car. We then walked toward the town center and the Uffizi Gallery.

This is a statue of Garibaldi. He united the various separate kingdoms and duchies of Italy into one country. To some he is a hero to others the unification was a mistake. The relatively wealthy north of Italy has been supporting the relatively poor south for years. Such is life in Italy.
Florence is known world wide for the magnificent art housed in the Uffizi Gallery. However, we stopped at a few churches as we walked to the city center and the Uffizi Gallery. The art in these churches was amazing.
What an amazing fresco on the ceiling of this church.
This is the burial vault of the famed painter Bottecelli.
This is the second church we visited while we walked to the Florence city center.
This is the group that made the trip to Florence. Marco, his father, Alfredo, me, and his mother Cosetta.
This is the Duomo.
It is my understanding that this is the baptismal building. You weren’t allowed into the Duomo unless and until you had been baptized.
Another shot of the Duomo. There was no charge to get into the Duomo so the line to get in stretched around the block. We had timed tickets to enter the the Uffizi Gallery so we did not have the time to wait in line and tour the Duomo.
As we were walking to the Uffizi I saw this chocolate shop. That is a chocolate waterfall. Amazing.
This is a statue of Neptune outside the Uffizi.
This is a copy of Michelangelo’s David. This statue is probably three times life size and amazingly lifelike. Once we got into the Uffizi there was an hours long line to see the real thing, so no viewing of the original David on this visit.
This is a photo of the Pontevecchio from the top floor of the Uffizi. This bridge is pedestrians only and is lined on either side by high end handmade jewelry shops. The jewelry does not have price tags. If you have to ask about the price of a particular piece of jewelry that means you can’t afford it.
Botticelli’s Venice.
Another Botticelli.
I forget who did this altar piece but I thought it was stunning.
After we concluded our visit to the Uffizi we decided to have a late lunch/early dinner.
This is our waiter, Enrico.
No appetizers. We went straight for the 3 pound rare t- bone steak.
Roasted zucchini.
Spinach.
Roasted potatoes.
Carriage rides are a popular way to get around Old Town Florence.

It took quite a while to get out of Florence but we eventually made it back to Carpi. What a wonderful day in Florence. A great City and great people to share it with.

That’s it for this evening. I hope you are having a wonderful day wherever you are. Good night from Carpi, Italy.

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Published by abeandmarkonthecamino

I've been retired from the Union Pacific Railroad since 2017. I've been planning to walk the Camino for about 6 months and can't wait to get started.

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