Day 5 - Cinque Terre to Florence

Day 5 - 

Today was a transition day. Cinque Terre to Florence, the capital city in Tuscany. After a last stroll through our town of Manarola and a quick breakfast, we headed off to Florence. Although there could be lots of things to do between Cinque Terre and Florence, we decided to head straight for Florence, about a 2 hour drive.





Our first stop was the Piazzale Michelangelo, which is on the south side of the Arno River. The park overlooks the "old" city of Florence. So Duomo, San Croce, and other historic landmarks are easily seen from the park. Lots of great pictures of places we will visit and learn about over the next couple of days. We ate lunch from a food truck in the park. Delicious sandwiches on homemade bread.










We then headed into Florence proper. Driving in Florence is very restricted due to narrow streets and lots of pedestrians. We had reserved a parking spot in a garage not far from our hotel. Due to this we had "privileges" to drive and park in the city. In typical Google fashion, Google maps failed us and we had a bit of difficulty locating the garage. Thanks to a helpful hotel doorman, a physical map with directions, Brad's copiloting, and Cindy jumping out of the car to look around a corner, we found the garage and made it to our hotel by 3:00pm.



We checked into our rooms and then headed out for a Florence Renaissance walking tour. Our guide Michael (use your best Italian pronunciation) told us about the history of Florence including the flourishing art and building scene that kicked off the Renaissance in Europe. We learned about DaVinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Brunelleschi, Galileo and others, as well as the powerful Medici family that controlled Florence for several hundred years, and were significant patrons of the arts.








Cosimo Medici I had a high opinion of himself. The statue on the horse is him but the faces on the other two figures are also him. 

 


Hercules and Cacus 


Poseidon/Neptune


Anna Maria de Medici is one of the main reasons so much of Florence’s artwork remained in the city. 

Dinner was pasta and dessert in a restaurant not too far from our hotel. As usual the desserts were delicious (pasta was fine also).





Cream puffs covered in a chocolate liqueur 


Can’t remember what this was called but it was a light pastry with cream between the layers. Delicious!


On final note. Today is a true Liberation Day. Italians celebrate April 25th, on this day in 1945 was the end of Mussolini and Fascist rule in Italy. It's a national holiday and the city was filled with more revelers than normal.
 
Tomorrow we tour the Duomo, climb the Brunelleschi dome, visit Basilica of San Croce, and then do a Italian pasta cooking class. History and food. What can be better.

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