Florence

To Accademia Gallery only 500m away. Got there before opening but queues long. Waiting in queue with Australians. Offered 'tour' once, then second time accepted. Got in by 10:00am and had great guide. Worked up to going into the hallway to see statue of David at end of hall. Absolutely breathtaking. Fantastic perspective to be learning about it all with the statue in the background. Well worth it.

Football game

Veronica to markets

Went to Palazzo Vecchio at night. Was pen to Midnight. Biggest Hall in Europe. Amazing works. Also access to rooftop to see Florence at night. Great sites to be seen, piazzas below.

Veronica's day trip included morning in Sienna, lunch at the wine estate Poggio Alloro, San Gimignano, Chianti countryside drive, and Pisa.

I went off to Pisa. Slept on the train which was unusual for me. Woke up about 5 mins from Pisa. Walked down to the historic area. Walled city with lots of the wall remaining. Pretty average river to go past. Pisa tower and the basilica brilliant and as good as the postcards and movies. The precinct has been restored and is great. Great shots of Bear holding up the leaning tower.

Train going to Pistoia where another renowned basilica (on Simon's list). Got off at Lucca and had 20 mins to walk around there. Only found out afterwards that Lucca has lots of historic elements including roman walls etc. plus basilica. Found Tourism office that was to close at 1:30pm, but had already closed at 12:50pm. Nice one! I had the next train worked out, but did ask Station person about the next train to Pistoia and which platform Told Platform 4 at 1:52. Went there, but soon realised wrong platform and wrong train. Got a train at 1:32. I think it is on purpose. Train from Lucca to Pistoia was running late, and was a thirty minute trip. Took 50 mins. How can a train already running late, lose 20 mins on a 30 min trip? My ticket had not been Validated and the Conductor was not happy and said it is a 300E fine.

Got to Pistoia and found the basilica precinct. Basilica and baptistery done in the same grey/green and white marble as Florence. Amazing, but closed on Monday!! Ouch. Walked around the piazza with no-one to be seen. Walked back to stazione, and got lost. Had to ask for help!

Train from Pistoia up through mountains via Prato Centrale to Bologna. 15 ins at Prato Centrale enough time to walk across beautiful bridge over river. Very pretty. Lots of good mountain scenery and rural villages.

At Bologna, booked seat on Eurostar to Florence (one stop) for Car 3. Lined up at Car 3 spot with others, train pulls in, no car 3! Conductor tells me in Italian 'no car 3. go to car 8 and find a seat!. Did that.

Big day today with the sights of Florence. Doing the big three in the Basilica precinct in the Piazza del Duomo. Went first to the Cupola del Brunelleschi (Duomo) entrance, expecting al big line up, but were at top of queue. Up to the Duomo gallery walkway. Narrow staircase inside the walls. Brilliant view from next to/under the duomo ceiling. Amazing depictions. At this stage I was getting a bit dodgy with the heights and could see the next galley level about halfway up the duomo. Decided to go back down. After squeezing past people (really was a one-way path, about 1 person wide) and getting in everyone's way I knew it would be a bad look to try to go down the stairs past people. So, only way down is to go to the next level and then go down without actually going out on the next gallery walkway. Easy!

Up the internal stairs. Getting narrower, steeper, and tighter circumference as it went higher. Geez, the next galley is a long way up. Then out I pop, on the cupola (the top of the dome! Talk abut heights! A quick look around holding on tightly to the rails, squeezing past 100 people crammed into this little area, and then down the steps. Via another set of stairs that downs down to the next gallery, but have to go across the duomo gallery walkway to get out the 'down' steps. Did that manfully, then met Vo out side. Great view wasn't it.

After Duomo, we went back to the Hotel for a rest. Was starting to rain a bit. I went back down to wait in line for the opening of the Battistero di San Giovanni (Baptistery). First in queue with an old lady formerly from Australia and her son. Brilliant works  in here, and again not many people as we were first in.

Next was the Campanile di Giotto (Bell Tower), which gave us views about the same height as the Duomo. We had a quick look in the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore itself as well

Took a long walk around some of the sights using a Lonely Planet walking route. Included Piazza della Republica, Palazzo Vechio, Ponte Vecchio (bridge), across river to Piazzale Michelangelo, up to the hill of St Salvatore al Monte, and up to Piazza de Pitti and Palazzo Pitti (Pitti Palace). Here was Galleria d'Arte Moderna and Caravaggio exhibition.