And to Florence and Pisa we arrived the next day. Actually we arrived in Livorno since neither Florence or Pisa are actual port cities. And both are about 1-1.5 hours away from Livorno. I had some decisions to make about which tour to take and whether to take one at all and go on our own. My mom doesn't walk well so many of the tours I really would like to have done were out. But the way I see it, I was never going to see everything in Florence (no matter our walking condition- there's just too much for one day), now I have a foundation of what's there to hope I get to go back to!
We did a tour that was called Florence/Pisa on your own. Which means they drive you there and tell you all about it and what you can/should do when you are left on your own. I would love to say that as we drove the many hours through the Tuscany region that I got several beautiful pictures, it was gorgeous but you just can't get a good picture from a highway as you quickly drive past. I would love to go back with a rental car and be able to take side detours and capture those scenes. Next time...
But we started in Florence at the Piazza di Santa Maria Novella.
Santa Maria Novella in the Piazza
Our tour guide gave us a map of Florence and normally with this tour we would be on our own way from here. But this day she had "business" she had to attend to in tourist center so she said she would walk us. Which was good, because it would've taken me some time to figure out the map. I never saw a street sign and the small streets seemed unbelievable as streets. But they were, and cars drove down them and I wondered at times if they actually wanted me to climb up the walls to get out of their way because there wasn't room for all of us!!
Duomo
Campanile (Giotto's Tower)
Laura (pronounced much different in Italy- but our tour guide) pointing out the "first" drunk guy on the side of the church Duomo
Palazzo Vecchio (and Uffizi Gallery on the right)
Copy of Michelangelo's David (statue on the left) in front of Palazzo Vecchio- the real David once stood here until it was moved to Accademia for safe keeping out of the weather.
Where the Mona Lisa was painted (or at least was started)
The story of Pinocchio comes from this area
Piazza Santa Croce
Santa Croce Church (if your thinking all these churches look alike by now, you are correct, in my opinion)
Galileo Galilei's tomb inside Santa Croce
Michelangelo's tomb inside Santa Croce
Courtyard of Santa Croce
Laura recommended this place to eat in Piazza Santa Croce- excellent Italian food!!!
Chianti wine
Rigatoni with truffles on Laura's suggestion- SOOOOO delicious!!!
The great thing about traveling with my mom is we both don't mind sharing our food so we got lasagna too- the pasta actually seems to melt in your mouth, yum!
Then it was off for another hour and a half drive to Pisa (with no real A/C because it was broken on our bus- a bit miserable). I'm glad I went once, but this is one place that if at all I could avoid going to again (if not with someone that just must see it, and I understand must seeing it), I wouldn't ever go again. It was just WAY over crowded and full of beggars, people selling you stuff and schemers. When we got off the tram it was a solid 1/2 mile of these kinds of people until you got to the leaning tower. It was hot and miserable there. But you have to see the leaning tower...
There were so many people trying to take the typical tourist picture holding up the tower. And it's not that I was above that, it's just that at this point my phone had died and my other camera is one that you can't really see that well through in the sunlight (convenient). It took everything just to get that picture my mom took of me with the tower!
And then we crashed on the bus, a new one with A/C, on our way back to the boat for the final hour+ drive back! A long but great day in Tuscany!!!
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