Great tour of the Leaning Tower and Florence
Jul 2019
We went on a tour in the middle of the heatwave that is crashing over Europe. Our tour guide, Stefania, was fantastic-- she is a native of Firenze (Florence) and was able to steer us to just the right places. We went to the Leaning Tower first thing in the morning after leaving the cruise ship and spent about an hour there-- you have to walk for about ten minutes from where the buses park. Stefania gave us all headsets so we could easily hear her talk. After our time at the Leaning Tower, we headed on to Florence. I was a little worried that in Florence we wouldn't get a chance to go inside the Uffizi (Botticelli's paintings) or the Academia (the original David), but those fears proved to be unfounded-- Stefania walked us through Florence for about an hour, pointing out many historical details about what is an absolutely astonishing city-- the Duomo Cathedral is certainly one of the top 5 most impressive buildings I have ever seen. We then had an hour and a half for lunch; we went to Ristorante La Grotta Guelfa, where my daughters enjoyed a delicious (and reasonably priced) pizza. Afterward, we spent another hour walking slowly through the city as Stefania explained many other things about the city-- the history of the city with the Medicis, the history of the Ponte Vecchio bridge, and more. From there, it was about an hour and twenty minutes back to the cruise ship. All told, a long but really great day.
Cervantestrip
