Pisa & Florence

Firstly, last night we had another lovely dinner. And I'd like to report that David ate most of his FOUR courses that he ordered ;-) It's lovely having a different menu each night, and if there's something not on there that you'd like, you can ask for it anyway! There is always something gluten free that I can eat.

Another hot day around 30 degrees, clear blue skies. We were picked up my Maurizio of Tuscany Taste Tours in his mercedes van at 8.00 am, and off we went to Pisa where we spent 30 minutes looking at the Leaning Tower, Baptistry, and Duomo and surrounding area called the Square of Miracles. On the way to Pisa, Maurizio talked a bit about Italian politics, and the problems they have with gypsies in the area. Our group was made up of our Cruise Critic friends: Anna and Marilyn, Jo and Rick, Paula and Harold.

From there he detoured off the freeway, and through some beautiful Tuscan countryside. Then on to Florence where we had a fabulous view over the whole city from Piazzale Michelangelo.

From there we visited the Church of Santa Croce (lots of very famous people buried there - eg Dante, Michelangelo, Rossini), then on to lunch in a very small, cheap, authentic Italian restaurant (Trattoria Le Mossacce). They cooked up some of my gluten free pasta and added a tomato sauce, for my lunch. I had my first experience of an Italian 'hole in the ground' toilet when there... say no more!

We were lucky that Maurizio has a permit to drive through Florence, so we didn't have to park in a bus outside the town, and so we had less walking. He made several stops where we were able to walk around for between 30 minutes and an hour - not that David and I were really into shopping.

We were the only couple on the tour to stop and go into the Accademia, and to see "The David" by Michelangelo - but, when your name is David, you need to do it. We loved that, and the 'prisoner' sculptures that were Michelangelo's unfinished works. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos in there; what a pity as the David was magnificent and certainly worth visiting... Rick Steves did a great quick explanation for us of these sculptures in his podcast. I also enjoyed seeing some of the first pianos - spinets and harpsichords - very different to our digital keyboard!

Then we carried on, walking around places like the Duomo with its famous Dome (we saw the famous Baptistry doors), through Piazza della Signoria and past the Palazzo Vecchio, along past the Uffizi Gallery, along the River Arno and then over the Ponte Vecchio. Unfortunately, the queue was too long to get into the Duomo, but we'll survive! We had a little time to visit the San Lorenzo Market, but didn't purchase anything, David also had his photo taken stroking the Lucky Boar. We had decided not to go into the Uffizi after all, as it would have been too much of a rush and we wouldn't have been able to look around the streets.

Then it was the journey back to Livorno and the ship, via the freeway. Thoughts about this tour with Maurizio - he was very nice and accommodating, but we would have benefited from him having a microphone in the van so everyone could hear him. And also, more information about the sights we were seeing in Florence would have been helpful. A little map of Florence to hand out to people, showing the main stops, might have been helpful too. He was more of a driver than a tour guide, with the information he gave us.