Ahh Florence

After Rome I was off to Florence. With a little bit more travel time than I had hoped. I think this break has been the traveling of complications. It was supposed to be a quick train ride to the Rome airport, then a nice fast 55 min flight into Florence. At first all seems to be going well. I get to the airport and check my bag and proceed to the gate. We get delayed one hour - no biggie I thought. We get on our plane and are off on the flight to Florence. The captain comes on and says we are about to begin our decent. The plane starts to go down ... then it levels off ... then it starts to go UP! Wait, wrong direction! I'm no pilot but I am pretty sure decent means down.

He comes on the radio again and says that the Florence airport is too foggy and that he can't land. So he is going to go to the nearby Pisa airport and try to land there. Ok, so I'll just catch a train back to Florence I thought. Well when we get above the Pisa airport he comes on the radio again and says that we can't land here either because the airport is too full - there is no room for us. Everyone else who was supposed to fly into Florence also went to Pisa, and now we are just SOL. So what do we do?? Fly back to Rome, yes, back to the "point A" of this whole thing.

We get to Rome and have to all go and get our bags (after waiting forever for them to come out on the baggage thingy) then we have to go to the ticket counter and all get our tickets refunded. After that long ordeal of waiting around and starving I finally break free to get a bag of chips. Then they load us all onto a bus bound for Florence. It is a 3+ hour bus ride, which started off with a little kid throwing up in the back of the bus. Just lovely.

I get to my hotel and get my room key and am expecting the little single room with a twin bed that I booked online. But to my surprise I get a suite! A California King bed, a chandelier over the bed, a huge bathroom (esp by European standards) and each in a separate room with a little hallway in between. Very nice. Needless to say I was exhausted and just crashed there for the night. But the next day I went out into the city and saw..... these!!

Fiume River


Bridge over Fiume River


Statues at end of bridge


Fiume River with Ponte Vecchio bridge in background


Ponte Vecchio


Scooters!


Palazzo Vecchio


Church towers from top floor of Uffizi Gallery


Uffizi Gallery with Palazzo Vecchio at end


The David (well a copy of where the real one once stood. I did see the real one and it was amazing ... but they didn't allow cameras. And I couldn't sneak a pic with my huge D-70)


Close-up shot of horses in a fountain sculpture in front of Palazzo Vecchio


Street in Florence


Duomo


View from the top - I had to climb 400+ stairs for this one! No elevators.


Ahh, the view.


S. Maria Novella church


Snow over the city! It started snowing when I was out seeing the sights. This view is from Piazzale Michelangelo.


Snow and a Mini behind an even minier car along a street next to the Arno River.


View of Florence - Bella.


These are pictures of my fabulous hotel room.



And as you may know of my troubles leaving Florence from a previous blog entry... here is a pic of the snow in Florence out of the train window to Rome.


Coming up next is a real specialty. There was an art exhibit going on throughout the city of Florence when I was there and I captured some of the most interesting pieces on film. What is it you ask? Well stay tuned to find out... I will just say it involves an animal. hehehe