Florence, from the hill and by the river

So on our third day in Florence, we started a little late but headed straight up hill to the Piazzale Michaelangelo.

As you can see the view was pretty spectacular. We sat up here had a late breakfast and just enjoyed the view for a while.

A bronze copy of David, overlooking the city he was created in and has always resided in. After taking the view in, we wandered down through the rose garden, looking at flowers and sculptures 

We found this wonderful sculpture, titled "Pasir" which means departing. As Gadgets Nonno and Nonna had packed up their young family and travelled from Tuscany to Australia many years ago, this sculpture felt a little special.

In this image you can see a wall that runs up the hillside, this wall is part of one of the many walls of the city.  Apparently when Italy was first United Florence was to be the capital, and they decided to demolish a lot of the walls and structures in the city so that the city would have grand boulevards, similar to Paris.

This fella Is the Porchetta. Is it believed that if you rub his nose you will return to Florence. The Porchetta is positioned next to a local market that sells mainly leather goods, but also some scarves and tapestries. Of course both Gadget and I rubbed the Porchettas nose and we hope to return here again sometime.

After visiting the Porchetta we visited the piazza Republique. This is one of the large Piazza's in the city. Everyday when you pass through the squares there are musicians busking, apparently this is encouraged by the city and I think it's great. This lovely lady was singing the main song from Carmen ( I have no idea what it is called) and she was marvellous. There was a huge crowd surrounding her. On other occasions we have seen guitarists and singers and even a Latin American type band playing.

In the evening we took a ride on a Barchetto. A Barchetto is a traditional florentine boat, they are a shallow style boat and were used mainly to transport goods. These Barchettos are very old and are driven by a large pole.  Paulo was a barge driver, he is a extremely fit gentleman in his late sixties and he spends most days of summer on the river on his boat. Apparently these boats require a fair bit of TLC , with special lacquers applied annually and the boats can not be out of the water for extended periods otherwise their hulls would crack. I am so glad they are preserving this little pieces of history for us to appreciate.

We were fortunate to have the opportunity to enjoy the river as the sun was going down. Look at the beautiful colours. I love taking photos at sunset it has always been my favourite time.

And as we pulled towards the shore this was my last photo as the sun dipped down below the Pont Vecchio.

This was a lovely way to spend an hour or so , with only the lapping of the water on the hull, seeing Florence from a different perspective, sipping Prosecco and watching the colours of Florence change as the sun dipped down.

Ciao 

Googy Girl