Bonsway!

This morning we headed out from our hotel, on the Piazza Santa Maria Novella, looking for the Accademia Gallery to finally see Michaelangelo's David. While we waited in the queue, our guide gave us the back story, the long and the short of which is that Michaelangelo was a genius!   We crossed the river tonight, to hear a soprano from Italian Opera sing arias from well known operas such as Turandot, La Traviata, La Boheme and Madame Butterfly.  It was held in an old church Chiefs Di Santa Monaca, and the audience was small but appreciative.  The pianist played solos - everyone familiar to lovers of Pride & Prejudice!  A lovely evening all in all. You 

Today we thought we'd join the line to see the Duomo.  Too easy except that every ticket was taken until July! However as we got close to the queues we were approached by a woman wanting to know if we had tickets.  She had plenty of tickets and a guide to take us through the museum, duomo, bell tower and baptistery.  Just like finals at the G, companies buy up the tickets and on sell them at a tidy sum.  We were glad to take up the offer and had a great time transported back to the days of Donatello, Michaelangelo and Brunelleschi. For me, the Duomo is all about the building, the pulleys, levers, the wood bearers, the brick moulds and the bricks - beautiful herringbone.  Inside the cathedral walls, the message is clear to all - straighten up and fly right or burn in hell - sound familiar?  Took lots of photos from the top of the dome. (If only I could get them to load here!  I'm working on it)!  Even today the Duomo dominates the city with its s...

We are back in the land of the living and ready for our first day in Firenze.  Firstly we had to organise our train from Perugia to Napoli at the station, which was busy but well organised.  We headed for the mercato to pick up some fruit and found a shop selling wine for a reasonable price.  Back to the hotel and then over the Arno to the Piazza de Pitti and the Boboli Gardens, home of the Medicis.  Very grand, formal gardens with hardly a flower to be seen but great views towards the centre of town.  The weather is hot and blowy, rain clouds gathering.  We came back via the Ponte Vecchio, which was packed with tourists like us.  Nectarines were delicious!

Bongiorno from Firenze!  This will be a short post to say that we have arrived safely after a long couple of travel days.  You will be grateful that I haven't added photos because we feel like scribble (thank you Morgandy for that excellent description of jet lag).  Before we completely caved in, we did manage to eat a pistachio gelato - which was splendido - but eventually ended up all over us!  It is just after 4am local time Wednesday and we will commence properly from today.  Ciao