A Spreading of Wings: Firenze - Contiki days 12 to 13

After getting covered in itchy bites it was time to leave Venice. A short trip over to Florence. Since that would not take too long, the trip went via Pisa. The entry to Pisa that we had was a bit surreal. Since Paris we had gotten used to seeing gypsy hawkers trying to sell anything and we had been warned that Pisa had quite a few. However as we drove into the mostly empty bus park it felt like something out of a zombie movie. Gypsies seeing new tourists arrive, shuffled in from all directions. Fortunately if you ignored them and kept walking they left you alone and focused on easier targets. Our tour manager had instigated a photo competition while we were at Pisa. She had a prize for the most outside the square photo, having seen so many copies of the same thing she wanted variation. I took her at her word and took a photo from outside the square looking through an archway at the tower. My joke photo ended up winning the competition and I got a toy Pinocchio. Apart from the tower, there wasn't much to see in Pisa.

Onward to Florence. We arrived unpacked, had dinner then went to a karaoke bar for the night. It was a good night and several songs were sung. With cocktails coming in two litre jugs, some people may have drunk too much.

Our day out in Florence started with a trip to a leather goods manufacturer. They still use the same traditional techniques that they have for centuries. However the people showing us around, although they knew about what they were doing there, they knew nothing about the leather. So needless to say, they couldn't answer my questions. The stuff they made was pretty cool, but nothing I wanted or was willing to buy. After the leather demonstration we joined a free walking tour of Florence. The guide was amazing. She also helped explain why all these italians seemed to be celebrating ANZAC day with us (another street parade and abundance of flags). Apparently the 25th of April is celebrated as Liberation day in Italy. The tour covered the fake David, the outside of the Uffizi gallery, Ponte Vecchio, a famous square and the Duomo. After the tour we went in search of unofficially the best pizza in Italy and failed to find it.

Even though we had done the walking tour, we did our own one after lunch, going back to visit the same places and visiting others. We also saw the Pitti Palace and then got lost trying to find a way over a back wall into the gardens.

Dinner that night was at a restaurant in town. We were served a massive amount of pasta (pesto on spirals, tomato spaghetti and ravioli) followed by meatballs with mashed potato and chicken in mushroom sauce, all finished by an ice creamy cake. Needless to say, I ate way too much and enjoyed every moment of it. There was a moment of excitement when one of the girls got taken to hospital as she hadn't realised that there was nuts in the first course. Our after dinner entertainment was filled by a visit to the Space disco. Although it was a cool venue and we had fun, most people had a reasonably quiet night after the level reached at karaoke the night before.

Florence was cool. Having always liked the fleur de lis, it was fun seeing it everywhere. It was the symbol of the Medici family that used to basically run Florence. Also I really like the Italian name of Firenze. If I was to live in Italy then I could live in or near to Florence.