Day 27 - Florence

Florence!! There are some beautiful bridges over the River in central Florence and one of the most famous is Ponte Vecchio. It has a walkway through the middle of the Jewellers shops on either side. On the top of the shops on one side is an enclosed walkway that runs from a palace on one side of the river to a large office complex on the other side. This walkway was built and used by the Medici family to walk from home to office without having to walk with the public.

The Jewellers shops are just full of gold. Some of the designs are just absolutely amazing and some of the most original jewellery designs I have ever seen. We stopped on the bridge to read up on the history and a photo opportunity.

Sorry I keep forgetting to rotate photos before upload. This photo shows the cream walkway of the Medici family running above shops. The family were forced to build walkway out and around the brick tower when a rival family refused to demolish their tower! This is just one outside wall of the Medici Family residence. The majority of the building (yes you guessed it) was under scaffolding. Their orginal residence was on the other side of town near their offices. They purchased this one cheap when a banker called Pitti went bankrupt building this house for his family, trying to outdo the Medici family. The evidence of residences, art and sculpture once owned by the Medici family is almost sickening. Around 11 residences in Florence and another 13 villas in surrounding villages.

Alexandra purchased a couple of charms for her bracelet and the rest was window shopping! This is a photo of the real David in the Museum. Yes photos are banned as the rights are owned by some conglomerate, just as the rights to the Sistine Chapel are owned by Nikkon. A male took the photo and no it wasn't Jeffrey! If you ride a Vespa in Winter this is just the hat!

Here is the new version of the Fiat Bambino 500. A really cute car and just what you need to zip around Italy.

Alexandra checking out the inside of an old Fiat Bambino.

We booked online and stayed in a lovely 16th century palace in the centre of town. Over the years it has been used as an embassy residence. Our room was very large and the ceiling was at least 5 metres in height. Here is a photo of one corner of the sitting room. All for the bargain price of 90 Euros per night!

We were situated in a lovely area of Florence, just one street back from the river, the opera across the road and the embassies all around us. The short walk to the main streets was through the embassy areas which are blocked off to vehicle traffic and patrolled 24 hours by the carabaneiri, and then the Corsa of the designers. Alexandra and I were always along way behind the boys on the way home because we would stop at each window and choose our favourite, dresses, shoes, handbags, jewellery and decide on what occasion we would wear them. Incidentally patent shoes and boots of any colour are big time.