I have my own B&B/holiday business, White Horse Walking Holidays. Our home is open to guests for the purpose of walking in beautiful Wiltshire. Take a look here.
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03/09/05 We had an early start as we were going on a walking trip with Walking Tours of Florence - 'A Perfect Morning in Tuscany'. We skipped breakfast and met up with tour at 8.15 - then walked back to the bus stop opposite our hotel and caught the local bus at 8.50! The bus took us to Fiesole, up in the hills just North of Florence. We were a small group, the Australian guide, Peter, a family of 4 Americans, 2 Maltese and us. We had a 2hour walk in the wooded hills and saw the quarries from where the limestone for the great buildings was taken. We also stopped at the place from which Leonardo da Vinci was said to have tested his flying machine. The views were lovely, if rather hazy (it was very hot again). We finished at the lovely Villa de Maiano and had a tour of the house and gardens. It's now used for functions and films and is famous for the olive oil it produces from the estate. We had a lovely gourmet lunch at the nearby Fattoria di Maiano (where you can rent apartments, now there's a thought). We were joined by another 3 Americans. It was a wonderful meal, with antipasti of cheese, meats, crostini, olives etc, then pasta, with plenty of water and good Chianti. The company was excellent and it really was the perfect way to spend a morning and lunchtime.
We then returned to the city on the bus and had a rest and Sarah taught me how to play Backgammon, before going out to the nearby San Lorenzo Church which was unfortunately closed. So we visited the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi, just a few yards from the hotel. Yet more riches and fabulous frescoes of Gozzoli's Journey of the Magi.
04/09/05 We had 10am tickets for the Accademia today - just a few minutes from the Casci so a relatively leisurely start to the day. In fact we preferred it to the Uffizi as there's more variety, and lots of info printed by the exhibits. We were primarily there to see Michelangelo's David, However many photos you have seen, and however many replicas, nothing quite prepares you for your first sight of him as you round the corner. He's simply breathtaking. We found the place quite quirky - there are a number of very modern exhibits thrown in amongst the traditional, which we really appreciated by this time. There was also a gallery dedicated to musical instruments. We moved on to the Duomo and had drinks at a café whilst playing Backgammon and waiting for it to open. We joined the queue around 20 minutes before opening time and once opened, it only took a 5 minutes to get in. It's a huge space - big enough for 20,000 people - and it felt odd to look up and see where we'd walked around the dome a few days earlier. Then we moved on to Santa Croce, stopping for an excellent late lunch at the Yellow Bar. Santa Croce was lovely, full of treasures including Michelangelo's tomb. But full of internal scaffolding unfortunately. There was a lot more to see than in the Duomo so we were quite tired by the time we had finished looking at everything.
That evening we had another excursion, for a Tuscan dinner and a concert. There were only 4 of us on the tour, the others being a very nice Irish couple. We had an excellent dinner with wine at Il Cantinone, a cellar restaurant just across the Ponte Santa Trinita. And then on to the concert up the road at St Mark's English Church. It was wonderful, with the pianist Brian Marble and soprano Atsuko Isami. Few people there - we were in the front pew, but well worth a visit if you're in Florence and enjoy classical music. A magical evening, rounded off by walking back across the Arno, seeing the city lit up. 05/09/05 Today we had a trip to Siena and San Gimignano and I'm glad to say this was far better organised than the one to Pisa. I'm not keen on being herded around in a large tour group but we were spilt into 3 groups, albeit all big ones, and had an excellent guide in Siena. Starting in Siena, we walked through the town and visited the Duomo and its museum, where I felt we learned quite a lot from the guide. We were fortunate in that the Duomo floor was uncovered, which only happens for 6 weeks of the year in order to preserve the beautiful marble. The frescoes in the library were especially beautiful. We went to the Piaza del Campo, a huge space in which the famous Palio horse race takes place twice a year. During our free time, we had a light lunch and a little shopping before the drive on to San Gimignano.
We had around an hour and a half free time in San Gimignano, a beautiful medieval town known for its towers, although only 14 of the original 72 survive. We found a fantastic modern art gallery and spent quite a while there, and spent the rest of the time browsing the shops. The drive back was very picturesque, through typical Tuscan countryside and the traffic wasn't as bad as last time.
For our last evening, we chose a nearby restaurant called Buca San Giovanni, which had been recommended by the Maltese couple on our walking trip. We had a lovely meal, it's rather a special place with lovely friendly service and fabulous food. But it's different to the other places where we ate, where a pasta dish is a meal in itself. Here portions are considerably more restrained (and fairly expensive). If you're hungry, I'd recommend the special gourmet dinner. We were given champagne and dessert wine on the house. A great way to finish our visit to Florence. 09/09/05 We had a little time before our bus back to Pisa for our flight home, so we visited San Marco's Monastery and museum, which were both very interesting. The museum is housed in the monastery and you can see the monks' cells, each adorned with a fresco.
Our bus was due at 12 but it didn't turn up and we had to catch a train to Pisa and then a taxi to the airport, which was rather annoying - especially as we had return bus tickets. But we made it with just a few minutes spare to check in. The flight home was excellent, with a lovely low flight over the southern coast of Britain. It had been an excellent trip and I feel I now know my way around Florence fairly well (with my trusty, well-worn map in my hand!)
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