We left early for Firenze as we expected it got get unbearably hot again, but at least it was a bit cloudy today and up until two a clock the sun was not burning down as much.
We parked a bit up the hill at the “Posto Auto Gelsomino Garden” and walked all the way down to the Porta Romana, one of the old city wall entrances towards the southwest of the city center.
I had planned to go through the Giardino di Boboli, but at first, I was a bit shocked how much they were asking for. In the end we did it anyway and waked through the garden which was hillier than I expected. We passed the fountain dell’ Oceano and walked up the hill, where you have a really good view on the Palazzo Pitti and the city center. By that time I must commit the kids already had enough of sight-seeing as it was quite warm already. One recommendation that all parents already know. Do not take your kids to historic cities as they will not appreciate the places you get them to see. But to be honest, it was the same for me when I was at their age.
We walked down to the palazzo and I was really impressed by the size of the palazzo. Louis the 16th of France could not have asked for more. It is really big! We could not get the kids interested in going into the palazzo, so we went on via the Ponte Vecchio. I totally forgot that the whole bridge was full of jewelry shops of the unaffordable type. The bridge is really nice and as a part time gamer and a fan of the “Assassines Creed” series I loved to look at all the buildings from the 2nd part of the series that plays in Toscany.
We walked to the plaza della Signoria, where the Palazzo Vecchio is and saw all the nice renaissance statues. The most famous being the “David” statue directly at the front of the palazzo. I love the renaissance architecture and the time in general. When I think about the Medici I on the other hand think there are some parallels with Russian oligarchs and that
is something that I do not like that much though. All these fights between the families and the concentration of money with some families in the region.
We then went to the “Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore” and looked at the impressive building from outside. The queue was already so long and standing in the high noon heat was not an option for the kids and us as patens. The mood would have dropped abysmally.
Even from outside the building is astonishing. The green and white marble as well as the delicate intarsia, in the past as well as today, must have impressed the people who looked at it.
We went to get some lunch a few hundred meters away from the cattedrale and the prices also got very acceptable again. Same was true for the ice cream, as the ice cream places on the main tourist streets to the dome was as high as 4 EUR per ball of ice cream. We really liked the ice cream that is why I put the name here (RivaReno Gelato Firenze).
We also went to look at some of the shops and bough some small things as souvenirs and I even got a leather wallet. I guess I paid too much, but I was o.k. with the price.
Heading back to the car was quite a drag as the heat was unbearably already and the hill we went down, we now had to get back up.