The
shower and toilet arrangement here were not ideal. I had to use my “portaloo” over the toilet
and the shower was difficult to access with a small flip down seat against the
wall.
Sharney
learned the breakfast room was inaccessible so the staff set up a table for us
in the bar on the ground floor. There
was one small step which we could manage.
We then received the “royal” treatment from the waiter, plying us with
so much food it was almost embarrassing.
There was so much food that we had to refuse but we had a very
satisfying breakfast. Terry had
discussed with the concierge what we would do today and he booked a walking
tour. Before the walking tour we went to
the Accademia to see Michelangelo’s statue of David. There were long queues waiting to enter but
we went to the head of the queue and were given immediate access because I was
in a wheelchair. The staff were very
helpful. There were many artworks to see
and then we saw David, in all his naked glory.
David is a magnificent statue. He
is now surrounded by glass to prevent further attacks on him. A few years ago someone damaged one of his
feet with a hammer. 
We
saw many other statues in another part of the gallery which resembled a
workshop. Not all statues were
complete. We were pleased to discover
the Museum of Musical Instruments which is in the same
building. There we saw the ancestors of
the modern musical instruments, including a one note piano. There were instruments of all types on display
and it was very interesting to see them.
Unfortunately, we could not take photographs there, or anywhere in the Accademia. Many people did though with cameras and
mobile phones. The security people were
busy reprimanding people.
About
2.00 pm we commenced our walking tour with a very informative young woman as
our guide. The tour went for 1 ½ hours
and we didn’t go inside any buildings.
Our guide told us about the Duomo and the Baptistry, which she highly
recommended seeing. She was giving us a
“taste” of the attractions on offer in Florence
with some history and advised us to visit these attractions in our own time. We walked through squares and ended our tour
in a covered walkway with a pathway looking down on the Arno River
and we could see the famous Ponte Vecchio.
Many people were having their photo taken with the Ponte Vecchio in the
background and I took one of Sharney.
Terry spotted a rowing club on the water’s edge. We then went down to cross Ponte Vecchio
which was very crowded and difficult to negotiate with the wheelchair. The walkway across the bridge is lined on
both sides by mainly gold jewellery shops.
It is quite amazing. We continued
walking to the Pitti
Palace then commenced our
return walk. We found many of the “love”
padlocks adorning the rails on the bridge.
We returned to our hotel for a well-earned rest.
We
went out looking for a place to have dinner and found a delightful pizzeria
with the pizzas made from scratch by Mario, a real character. He was amazing to watch as he turned a small
ball of dough into a pizza base with a few flicks of his wrist. He then put on the makings and baked the
pizzas in a fiery pizza oven. We chatted
to him briefly telling him we were from Australia to which he replied that
he’d like to go there but “it’s too late now”.
The pizzas were delicious and Mario’s entertaining style made it a
special dinner. We then went for a short
walk on the way back to the hotel, seeing the Duomo in the night sky.
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