OUR FAMILY HOLIDAYS

9198 Florence 1993

I had been Florence before, as had Pat. But the context for these previous visits had been that we had toured to Florence from other cities.  These day tours all seemed to arrive on the outskirts of Florence in time for the leather shops to be open but too late for all the galleries, which closed in the middle of the day not to reopen before the tours departed again. As a result I had always been disappointed with Florence.  I thought it was a rather sombre city.

My mind was completely changed by spending five days there. We stayed in the centre, in a very cheap hotel, up on the fourth floor of an apartment block, but it was within walking distance of everything. Consequently, we saw Florence, for the first time, as a living city.                                                          Florence from the Pitti Palace

We got a totally different view of the city, walking around its various squares. Where I'd previously seen it as a very dark city, I came to realise that the overhanging roofs provided shade for pedestrians; so that it was Italian city that you could really enjoy walking through in comfort. 

The main square is in front of the palace, where Michaelangelo's David statue was.  These days, needless to say, the original is too valuable to expose it to the elements, so it's a copy.  It is still impressive.

The copy                                                 

The Palace

The palace itself is also impressive, with paintings and murals covering almost every inch of its walls and ceilings.

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