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Florence (Day One of Two)Apr 15, 2008
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Train station in Livorno
Darlene and our Canadian dinner companions at the train station
Our massive Florence hotel room
| Livorno and Florence: We landed in Livorno this morning off the western coast of Italy. We took a taxi to the train station and boarded the train for a 1 ½ hour trip to Florence. The Tuscan countryside between the coast and Florence was as advertised: green rolling hills, cypress trees, terraced fields and scattered farm houses. We walked about six blocks to our hotel and found that our room was twice as big as our room in Rome. The ceiling is 10 feet and it has a stone balcony overlooking a clean and manicured area of quiet apartments and hotels. There are many small restaurants within walking distance. After lunch we walked to the Cathedral Di Santa Maria Del Fiore (del Duomo) & the Baptistry. This is the 4th largest church in the world and has a dome almost as impressive as the Sistine Chapel. It began to pour down rain as we walked in line to enter the Duomo. We believed this was a good omen given that today was our 31st anniversary and given the fact that it rained on our wedding day. We’ve included a few pics of this location. We also walked to the Galleria Academia where Michelangelo’s statue of David is housed. It’s strange that there are no signs as you approach this museum to point it out. We walked past it without realizing it. It was a little disappointing that pictures were not allowed. Once again we met people from various parts of the world. At lunch we spoke to a couple from Ventura County. At dinner tonight we met a woman from Australia and her adult daughter who is currently working in Dubai (near Saudi Arabia). We had a lively discussion with them. I’m driving Darlene crazy by taking so many pictures. I took about 240 pictures today alone. I’m only attaching a few of those to this entry. Take care, Stan & Darlene |
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