David and Goliath
Hello, remember us. Its been a while since we have been able to get to a computer, lets just say some parts of the world are not quite advanced yet for 'internet cafe's'. Back to the post....
From Rome we joined the Busabout tour. Great way to travel independently where you get to jump on and off the bus which passes through each pick up point every two days. The Rome pick up point was way out of the city, so after negotiating with Rome trains and then local buses we did finally find the camping ground where the bus picks up. Apparently non-Italian coaches are not able to travel inside the cities of Italian towns without paying large fees.
After hopping on the bus we headed towards Florence, stopping at a small village called Orvieto for a coffee and a cornetto - in Italy a cornetto is a lemon cream filled crossiant - YUM! And the coffee in Italy is just suburb!
We arrived in Florence late afternoon, again outside of the city in a camping ground. Steve and I had booked accommodation in the city as we wanted to see the statue of David and some of the city - so it was off to the bus stop for a local bus with backpacks on and getting to our hostel, which turned out being in a very convenient place in town.
We joined the queue to see Michaelangelo's famous statue of David at around 4pm. The queue was long (and in Italy they don't organise queues well, just lines of people that continue to go back past and around buildings, with many people in line starting to get queue rage if someone tries to cut in line) but while in queue we got chatting to a couple of ladies from the States who were in their 80's and had travelled all over the place, very lovely ladies and they kept us entertained as well as helped us plan out where to visit when we get to Hawaii - and the hour and a half wait passed much quicker.
Getting into the museum you realise that while David is their main attraction, other than David there are very few other statues, in fact probably only half a dozen, mind you one was Michaelangelo's Pieta - one completed before the famous one in St Peters Church in Rome.
David is an incredible site. He is large and the detail of veins and muscles are very life like. I didn't realise David was actually the David from the David and Goliath story, he was only a boy and this statue shows him as a young innocent boy rather than the other known statues where he is holding Goliath's head after the battle.
After seeing David we went to see the Duomo in the square - Duomo is basically a church but spectacular, huge and with green and white marble which is lit up at night and its quite a sight to see. We had the most delicious pasta at a small little place where when the waitress asked if we wanted anything else and I jokingly said 'the recipe' she comes back to the table with a smile, the bill and the recipe!!!! The Italians keep their pizza and pasta simple and must say, its absolutely delicious.
It was a warm night and lots of people were out so we wondered around with a gelati (the BEST ice cream in the world) while we people watched, and saw some sights. We wandered over to the well known Florence bridge 'Ponte Veccia' which was absolutely packed. There was this busker set up on the bridge but he was fantastic! We stayed and listened for a while and he was so good we bought his CD - it was such a beautiful night, its a shame we didn't have more than one night there.
L&S
From Rome we joined the Busabout tour. Great way to travel independently where you get to jump on and off the bus which passes through each pick up point every two days. The Rome pick up point was way out of the city, so after negotiating with Rome trains and then local buses we did finally find the camping ground where the bus picks up. Apparently non-Italian coaches are not able to travel inside the cities of Italian towns without paying large fees.
After hopping on the bus we headed towards Florence, stopping at a small village called Orvieto for a coffee and a cornetto - in Italy a cornetto is a lemon cream filled crossiant - YUM! And the coffee in Italy is just suburb!
We arrived in Florence late afternoon, again outside of the city in a camping ground. Steve and I had booked accommodation in the city as we wanted to see the statue of David and some of the city - so it was off to the bus stop for a local bus with backpacks on and getting to our hostel, which turned out being in a very convenient place in town.
We joined the queue to see Michaelangelo's famous statue of David at around 4pm. The queue was long (and in Italy they don't organise queues well, just lines of people that continue to go back past and around buildings, with many people in line starting to get queue rage if someone tries to cut in line) but while in queue we got chatting to a couple of ladies from the States who were in their 80's and had travelled all over the place, very lovely ladies and they kept us entertained as well as helped us plan out where to visit when we get to Hawaii - and the hour and a half wait passed much quicker.
Getting into the museum you realise that while David is their main attraction, other than David there are very few other statues, in fact probably only half a dozen, mind you one was Michaelangelo's Pieta - one completed before the famous one in St Peters Church in Rome.
David is an incredible site. He is large and the detail of veins and muscles are very life like. I didn't realise David was actually the David from the David and Goliath story, he was only a boy and this statue shows him as a young innocent boy rather than the other known statues where he is holding Goliath's head after the battle.
After seeing David we went to see the Duomo in the square - Duomo is basically a church but spectacular, huge and with green and white marble which is lit up at night and its quite a sight to see. We had the most delicious pasta at a small little place where when the waitress asked if we wanted anything else and I jokingly said 'the recipe' she comes back to the table with a smile, the bill and the recipe!!!! The Italians keep their pizza and pasta simple and must say, its absolutely delicious.
It was a warm night and lots of people were out so we wondered around with a gelati (the BEST ice cream in the world) while we people watched, and saw some sights. We wandered over to the well known Florence bridge 'Ponte Veccia' which was absolutely packed. There was this busker set up on the bridge but he was fantastic! We stayed and listened for a while and he was so good we bought his CD - it was such a beautiful night, its a shame we didn't have more than one night there.
L&S
posted by Steve & Lina at
7:48 AM
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