Before I start I just want to mention what is it with European men and their mobile phones...... When our guides from Athens to Italy where not explaining to us where we were they were talking on their mobile phones... then again on occasion it didn’t matter that they were talking to us if the phone rang we had to wait..... They are also quite skilled at multitasking especially while driving. They would be driving be on the phone, waiving their hands or digging into their bags pulling out diagrams or family photos to show us.... LOL
Today we had the owner Fabrizio to take us into Florence.... Mama Mia!!! He had us laughing most of the way around with his stories and jokes.... He was not on the dock when we arrived, as our guides for the last two ports were portside. I thought I better give him a ring to ensure he was on his way.... From what I gather he was close and he just needed to finish his espresso ( to his defence we were a little early for him ) , so of course this became the brunt of some of his jokes during the day ..... “ Madam, did they kick you off the ship this morning ......... Mama Mia!!”
There were two companies that I was deciding between to use in Italy..... I chose Fabrizio because he looked like the guy that lives across the road from us.... Fabrizio was full of life..... He started off calling me Senorita until he realised I was married to Garry then he called me Madam...... hmm I told him quick smart that I like Senorita better as I hid my grey roots....
He made us laugh especially when he needed some divine intervention and he would pull down his sun visor which had pictures of the pope and other religious icons and make a small prayer.
Our first stop was at Pisa...... there she was in all her glory the Leaning tower of Pisa.... She looked beautiful... I expected to see something that look old , ruinish if you know what I mean.... but her exterior looked so maintained ... except for the Lean she was perfect. I was warned that she was smaller than you expect, but I thought she must of been really small as she was larger than I thought.
The Duomo and the Baptistery also looked grand sitting there next to her.....Oh I forgot.... take a look at Fabrizio’s shoes..... Don’t you just love them.....
Now it was onto Florence.....boy did it live up to all expectation.... first we were taken up to the Piazzle Michael Angelo where we had a wonderful panorama view of the whole city. During the day we got to see lots of different statues of David, The first being the Bronze one that was at this square.
From there it was down to the Church of Santa Croce for few pictures and a look at some expensive leather goods before we hit the cheaper markets.
We visited the Academia to see another of Michael Angelo’s famous works .... the real David.... which is just an amazing sight.... Then Fabrizio dropped us off at the Duomo and Baptistery in Florence for a couple of hours to enjoy a bit of lunch and a stroll through the markets.
No visit to Florence is complete without a stroll along the Ponte Vecchio... although it was only cheap I can say that I had bought a piece of Jewellery from the bridge of Gold.
One last stop at the Uffizi Museum, not to go inside but to see David No 3 out front. This is where the original David used to be but he was moved to a safer position in the Academia and a replica was erected in its place.
Being such good tourists we had a little spare time up our sleeve so Fabrizio told us that he will take us to winery in the Tuscan region just to get a couple of pictures of the great scenery.... Lucky his friends just happen to have a cellar door right where we stopped.. J
Day number 3 and we are all starting to struggle... Sail away was a little quieter tonight...
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