It's 11pm in Tuscany and yiu've had another big day sightseeing, shopping, walking, eating and drinking the fine wines of this region. Radda is a very small village 5kms away from the hotel and sits in the Chianti district of Tuscany in Northern Italy. The temperature here is a little more bearable than what's been had so far, around 25-30degs.
You and I woke up at 7am with hangovers after night in the hotel bar with 4 young guys from the Netherlands, a girl from Hungary, a gut from Germany and the Italian bartender. The bar tender was the first to give up and left us in charge of the bar. Just record what you drink and put your room beside it. The Dutch guys charged everything to their room and wouldn't let the 'real Māori' pay for anything. We did the haka, told jokes and stories and had a bloody good night. Struggled to find our villa at 2am and paid for it today during a big day of sightseeing and shopping in Firenze (Florence) 53kms away on a winding road. You and I went to church in Florence while the girls did some shopping and that gave us time to confess our sins and recover in order to tackle the day ahead. It's 11pm and you and I are still up but they are not, so we made it through another exhausting day. Well done, you're a good travel buddy.
Firenze is beautiful and the buildings are magnificient. I wish we had more time to explore the city and all it has to offer. Michaelangelo's statue of David will have to wait until the next trip. But there's so many other remarkable sculptures, cathedrals and buildings to see that I can appreciate the city as one of the art capital's of the world. Leonardo, Botticelli, Magigliani, Micheallangelo, ... all walked these cobblestoned streets and sold their art in the same way the street-sellers do today. They had to start somewhere and Flornce was the place. You can still feel their presence in the city.
Here's what you got up to today>
The Cattedral Duomo in Firenze
The front view of the Cattedral Duomo in Firenze.
Lorenzo!!!
Lorenzo!!!
My Lorenzo ... Mama mia, oo la la!!!
The breakfast area at our hotel. Complimentary breakfast all you can eat, an awesome selection of food fruits, cooked breakfast, fruit and hot drinks and we were the only ones eating. Great start to each day.
Paolo the painter. Frances bought some of his work but asked if he could enlarge one piece by painting more into it. He was happy to oblige and make the painting an original. A Leonardo in the making maybe? Come around home someday and see the artwork we've collected along the way. Firenze has amazing markets and the girls made some major purchases today. Leather is everywhere, belts, bags, jackets, jackets and jackets. Highly recommended as THE place to shop in Italy.
The village of Castelnella just 7 kms from the hotel. Tuscany is littered with castles on almost every major hill. Each is heavily fortfied and relates to the histories of battles and invaders who took turn to reign over the region and it's inhabitants. Our NZ history is soooo brief in comparison. Tuscany has had many different rulers over the centuries.
Thewalkway under the castle. There's a restaurant just a little further along.
The smoothest and largest nose I've ever hongi'd ..... and I've hongi'd some big ones at home.
This Sphinx is the guardian over the little courtyard in Castellnella.
These 2 cars are chained together and to a small tree for security. That's how you protect your cars in Italy, you chain them to small trees.
Mobile camper people may recognise this. It's an area where mobile camper vans come to dump their toilet waste. You simply drive up take out your toilet waste container and pour it into the slot. There is tap water in the concrete pile to the side of road and you're able to wash the container and try to flush away the solid waste. GRRRRROSS!!!
Ciao, it's 12.30am and I'm being asked to leave the internet area. Love you guys.
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