Florence

Yes, as per Emily's Facebook posting, I did book tickets for the wrong museum, not just the wrong museum but wrong city. We postponed our day in Florence unnecessarily. I had been looking at the website for the Galleria dell Academia in Venice instead of Florence. How was I to know they had the same name but only one has the name in the web address. Only one of my many mistakes yesterday, I'm sure Emily will delight in telling you all about Tan's toasted tuna and salad sandwich, as well as my breaking Ollie's new toy. It wasn't my day.

We did have some good fortune though, we found free parking Prato where we could the train into Florence. We managed to buy the tickets and get on the right train.

Florence was quite stunning, not so much the city itself but its treasures. Like a lot of Italy it contains many beautiful things but unfortunately the packaging is looking worn and tired. The heart of Florence was certainly cleaner and better smelling than many of the other old cities we have visited. It also has a charm a lot like Paris. I guess you can't be the heart of an artistic revolution and the soul of so such design without having something rub off on your visitors.

Our first site to visit was the Duomo, Florences Cathedral. Naively I had thought Duomo was Italian for dome as I had only heard it used in reference to Florence Cathedral. It actually means cathedral, in this case one with a gigantic dome on top. We wanted to climb to the top but thought the line was too long as we had our (actually non-existant) appointment to meet David.

The longer line was actually to view the cathedral itself so we joined the shorter dome line. We were then offered the opportunity to buy an express pass for entry to the dome, cathedral and museum. We were a little hesitant as we had read about some real scams in Florence and they were only selling a pass to get us to the head of the line, you still had to buy tickets inside. It seemed genuine though and they accepted credit cards so we figured Visa could sort it out if there was a problem. It got us to the head of the line without complaints from anyone and we were short of time.

We felt like we were following Kevin McCloud's footsteps as the climb was just like his in Grand Tour. I can't do the dome itself justice with my words though. It's an amazing feat of engineering for its day that still stands 800 years later. It was a hot and sweaty climb though and we were relieved to reach the top for a spectacular view of Florence. My climb was more sweaty than usual as I had offered to carry in my backpack a pair of shoes Emily bought on the walk from the station. What a nice Dad!

We grabbed some lunch on the walk to the art gallery, unfortunately I didn't notice the lady toast Tan's cold tuna and salad sandwich that she was especially looking forward to because it was cold on such a hot day. Tan disappeared while the kids and I waited outside the gallery for our allotted time. She did return in time with a more palatable lunch and bearing gifts of cold drinks.

We entered confidently via the reserved ticket line only to discover there was no reserved ticket in our name. The ticket man was quite patient and after failing to find our booking number on the computer scanned the printed list for our name or even a group our size to no avail. Not having any hard evidence of my purchase he graciously allowed us still to buy reserved tickets and not have to join the long queue outside. Phew.

David was quite amazing, surprisingly everyone was quite happy to just sit and stare for a while. It may have just been the very cool air conditioned room he is kept in but there was a fair bit of discussion about him as well. It did feel a bit pervy sitting there staring at a five metre naked man but then you remember he started out as a block of stone found abandoned in the corner of the cathedral grounds. Apparently he is considered to be the most perfect human form sculptured, proportionally accurate. From our vantage point Em thought his head seemed a little out of proportion but we might defer to the view of the experts.

Last stop was to be Ponte Vecchio the two storey bridge which has housed shops throughout its history. The enclosed walkway above the bridge was built by a one of the many Medici's who ruled Florence for much of her history, to join two buildings and allow the ruling class to cross the river without mingling with the peasants. It's now part of the other main art gallery which contains all the art bequeathed to the city by the last of the Medici's.

We took a detour there via Piazza di Santa Croce, the Basilica here contains the tombs of Michelangelo, Galileo and other famous Florentines. After Ponte Vecchio it was time to motivate the troops with the long promised gelato. We had searched everywhere for a gelateria with banana but there wasn't the best selection in Florence. The only one we found was just near the bridge and a bit of a tourist trap. The cups weren't displayed with prices as they had been elsewhere and the lady quickly grabbed the largest cup and started filling it, we eventually got down to the size we wanted with the last of the order but it was still an expensive gelato o'clock.

Our last surprise was waiting at the train station, something had gone wrong with the trains and they were all delayed. It was quite chaotic with little information and all in Italian of course. We eventually found a train we thought would stop at our station that had already been delayed 45 minutes and would be leaving soon. We rushed over to that platform and got on board, it was air conditioned and cool. Breathing a sigh of relief we settled in for about 60 seconds before a guard came through telling everyone to get off as the train would not be leaving.

Back to the chaos. Another possible train was identified and we hurried across to that platform finding a seat on this more crowded, not air conditioned, very hot train. Thankfully it did leave and it did stop at our station. Of course we just happened to be sitting next to two couples from the Gold Coast!

We decided to try out the roadside diner Autogrill on the drive home, a Newman recommendation for fine dining. It was that or Maccas but the boys wanted Lasagne and what parent would choose McDonalds over pasta for their child in Italy. It was fast food with style, unfortunately of all the pasta on offer no lasagne but the boys made do with schnitzel and chips. Tan, Em and I went the pasta option though and weren't disappointed. It may have been cheap and cheerful but it was also quite tasty, we even enjoyed a glass of wine with our meal.

We barely feel we scratched the surface of Florence and think you would need to stay a couple of nights to really soak it all in.

Florence