We have moved on to Florence today.
Having woken fairly early again and with our train not due to leave until nearly 11am, we decided to head down to the Trevi Fountain again without the crowds. Sure enough there was hardly anyone there and although they were cleaning the fountain we were able to get some more photos. On the way back, we decided to also try the Pantheon again and there were also few people here.
Another coin for the fountain
Back to the hotel and we headed up to the roof for our last breakfast in Rome. We had plenty of time before our 10am checkout so we had a leisurely breakfast and enjoyed our surroundings before eventually heading down to pack up and organise a taxi to the station.
I was going to say “being a work day morning the traffic was heavy” but I think it is more “the traffic was heavy again as expected” but we still had over half an hour before our train was due to depart when we got to the station. We waited at the departure board until our platform number came up against our train then boarded to wait to head off.
The train trip was pretty quick – about an hour and a half – and the overhead screens indicated we were doing 240 kmh at various stages. In the early part of the trip there were a number of long tunnels. It then soon opened up to wide, brown farming country with hillside villages here and there. In Florence we had booked another pickup to take us to our hotel. This week there is a round of the World Cycling Championships in Florence and many of the roads are blocked off for the racing. We have already had our pick up point for our car hire moved from the city to the airport as the original pickup point will be closed due to the street closures.
Pontivecchio Bridge
Once at the hotel, our room was not ready so we left our bags and went for a walk around the nearby streets. We are not far from the Pontivecchio Bridge and wandered down to the river to get a look from one point. Then we just browsed the streets checking out a few possible restaurants for dinners during our stay. An hour or so later we headed back to the hotel for check-in and a pit stop and then we set off to find some lunch. We found a little cafe nearby with a nice selection of panini’s and sat and watched the crowds go by as we ate.
One irritating aspect of both Rome and now Florence is the street hawkers and beggars. Some just wave their crap in front of you but some almost physically man-handle you – one in Rome kept trying to get Adrienne to take flowers and we almost had to push him away to get him to stop.
Ladies Time Trial
With the cycling track around town it is playing a bit of havoc with a walking routes. We walked down to near the Duomo to collect our Firenze pass and then would normally have walked straight across the street to collect our ticket for the Baptistry but had to walk along the edge of the barriers of the track to a point where they were letting people across. Today they were doing a ladies time trial so every couple of minutes a lead motor cycle would come past with lights, whistles or sirens closely followed by a lone cyclist who was closely followed by their team car – usually with someone hanging out the window shouting at the cyclist for encouragement. Then as they went past, the marshals quickly directed people across the track before the next one arrived. So then we walked all the way back to where we wanted to go.
The square near our hotel
From the Baptistry we headed to the Academia however the queues were miles long – we figured everyone trying to do the museums was getting as far away from the racing track as possible and so was heading here. So instead we went to one of the Medici palaces and on to the Medici Chapels but unfortunately missed the last entry time for the afternoon as it was getting on toward 5pm.
Unfortunately Adrienne has picked up the sore throat I had before we left so we headed back to the hotel so she could have a lie down and in the end we just ended up staying in for the evening. She is determined we will be off again tomorrow to catch up with what we missed today. Luckily Florence is quite small in terms of getting between the sites so we can take it easy really.