We arrive back at the hotel and park the car. It looks so tiny in the parking space when we look down at it from our hotel room window.

There is il negozio di alimentari (grocery store) just down the road from our hotel so we set off to buy some food for dinner and lunch the next day. It reminds me very much of the corner shop from my childhood. The air is filled with the aroma of food and hessian sacks. It doesn’t take long to make our decision as there isn’t a great deal of variety, so armed with tomatoes, deli meat, bread, a variety of cheeses and some biscuits, we make our way to the counter to pay.
The lady huddled behind the counter seems more intent on carrying on a loud discussion with a man who is rearranging items on the shelves, than attending to us. However, eventually she adds up the total and we make our payment of something like 1 million lira.

Back at the hotel, we eat and drink before settling in for the evening. We have a lot to do tomorrow and we want to make an early start.

So much to do and so little time. We are already regretting having only booked 5 days in Florence.

My main reason for coming to Florence is to visit the factory of Guiseppe Armani “The Society“. I collect Armani porcelain and so this is exciting for me to be able to see where and how the statues are made.

However, before we go in search of the factory we need to pick up the car we will be using to drive around Tuscany, from the Florence airport but we will do this in the morning.

Today is like any other day that we arrive in a new city, we book into the hotel, drop off the luggage, freshen up and set off to check out the area.

Fortunately our hotel is well situated so that it is not too far to walk up to the Ponte Vecchio.

The Ponte Vecchio has always been a place for shops and merchants. There was a time that shops on the Ponte Vecchio were given a tax exemption for selling their wares.

Apparently this is also where the concept of bankruptcy originated. Whenever a merchant fell on hard times and couldn’t pay his debts, the soldiers would physically break (“rotto”) the table from which he sold his wares (the (“banco”). This was known as “bancorotto” it can also be interpreted as “banca rotta” which means “broken bank”). As the merchant no longer had a table on which to sell his goods from he was unable to service his debts.

From 1442 until 1565, the association of butchers had the monopoly on the shops on the bridge. In 1565, Cosimo I de Medici prohibited the butchers from selling on the bridge and they were replaced by gold merchants. It is the jewellery merchants who inhabit the shops today.
The Ponte Vecchio spans the Fiume Arno and is the thoroughfare between the Palazzo Pitti and the Palazzo Vecchio.

Early the next morning we spend time in the queue waiting to go into the Galleria d Uffizi where we spend a pleasant few hours purusing the statues and paintings. There are just so many beautiful paintings and works of art by such artists as Bellini, Leonaro da Vinci, Tinelli, Tintoretto, Raffaello Sanzio and others too numerous to mention.

It is such a pleasure to stroll down the corridors past the numerous marble statues in the likeness of people of antiquity. Women with flowing gowns and tightly coiffured hair and men in togas or battle dress, each staring sightlessly into the distance, each a remnant of a long gone age.

Of course as in most of the museums, palazzo’s and art galleries we went into, photography was prohibited so we had to content ourselves with taking pictures outside. On exiting the Uffizi we spend part of the afternoon exploring the piazza San della Signorina and the Loggia della Signoria with their magnificent statues.

I have to say I am a real fan of marble statues and the Italian artisans have the ability to bring this medium to life showing the muscular definition and amazing facial expressions. Here is a statue of Leonardo Da Vinci outside the Academia.

And no, part of the statue’s face isn’t missing, there is a pigeon sitting on his hand.