10th June 2012

Debs: Up early today after a good sleep, we enjoyed a delicious breakfast before asking the bloke at Reception if it was possible to get a bus into Town. No problemo it seemed (notice how I just drop into Italian) just cross the road and take the bus into the middle of the city .
What the nice receptionist failed to tell us (and we had forgotten such things) was that one should buy a ticket from a tabac(conists), so we got on the bus without our tickets and tried to buy them from the driver, but he was totally uninterested and just ignored us. Rather bemused we sat down and waited until the end of the journey where he still didn‘t want to know, so we got off the bus and went about our sightseeing, assuming that bus travel must be free for British bike tourists… but like good Christians we bought tickets for the return journey.

Firenze was beautiful but unfortunately being both June and a Sunday it was packed to the gunnels with people. Hundreds of tourists (and us) wandering around trying to capture the magnificence of the building into our tiny camera viewfinders!

The Duomo and the Ponte Vecchio proved to be as wonderful as I had hoped, but  Steve just couldn't get over how the extra room was 'tacked on' at the back..They must have done a good job 'cos they're still there!






The city was incredible...  as was the lunchtime meal that we enjoyed at a little tucked-away local bar, we loved the notice on the wall too

We had a great day wandering around the city but to be honest it's too much for one day.. We made our way back to the hotel for a great dinner and a relaxing drink before dropping into bed.

Off to Urbino tomorrow, and Valentino Rossi's cafe the day after..