From the Hand of God to the Hand of Man

From the natural beauty of the Cinque Terre to the Manmade magnifance of Florence.

Woke up and it was sunny and 23C. Quickly packed, programmed Tom Tom and loaded the car for the two hour drive to Florence. But before we could leave, I had to solve a problem that I had found out about the night before. Apparently cars that do not belong to registered locals cannot go into the Old Town of Florence. The apartment we are staying in is in the heart of Old Town Florence. There are cameras on all roads leading into the Old Town and non registered cars are given a “heafty” fine. The city sends the fine to the car company who then puts it on your credit card. Rita phoned the person who will meet us at the apartment and she confirmed this was the case. She suggested a parking garage just outside of the Old City and we could take a taxi to the apartment. Great, problem solved. Got into the car and headed for Florence. Did not have an exact address for the parking garage but did have the street name. Found the street without a problem but could not find the parking garage. After about 30 minutes of driving in circles, we found another garage and parked the car. We had no idea where we were in relation to our apartment and could not find a taxi. We decided to keep our luggage in the car and programmed the Tom Tom with our apartment address and that we would be walking to our destination. Tom Tom told us it was just over 3km and off we went. Found the apartment without any problems. It’s an amazing building that is over 500 hundred years old. It’s owned by the Ferragamo Corporation (yes, the shoe Ferragamo's) and they have done a wonderful job of refurbishing the building. Our apartment is a loft with an incredible wood beam ceiling.
We got through the briefing and grabbed a taxi to take us to the garage to pick up our luggage and take us back to the apartment. Quickly unpacked, walked around the corner and had a gelato at famous Vivoli’s Gelato (its a hole-in-the-wall place with rude staff but apparently serves the best gelato), brought some groceries as most places are closed on Sunday and went for a walk about before dinner.

I know we will both love Florence but for different reasons; the history for me and the shopping for Rita.

Our Loft Apartment Bedroom

Rita with our prized Vivoli fresh Gelato's

Approaching Duomo Gothic Cathedral. The Dome dominates Florence

Duomo Cathedral and Giotto’s Bell Tower