Florence - what treasure will we find today - Piazzale Michelangelo

It's cappuccino time, where should we have it today.   Pull out our little map and we see a landmark just down the road from us so off we head.  Wonderful, having a coffee looking up at the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi.  Built for Cosimo the Eldest (have to keep our Cosimo's straight) around 1450.  In 1540 Cosimo de Medici moved to the Palazzo de Vecchio when he became Grand Duke of Florence.  The other family members stayed in this palace.  The picture above is a view from one of the many windows in the palace.  Now it is a museum.  An interesting section of the palace was turned into a costume museum, showing designs and material from different eras.

LOL next to the David, this might be one of my favourite statues.

There were magnificent tiered gardens rising up the hill.  They must have been in great shape back then, especially the workers carrying all the pieces of marble and rocks up for the artists as they built their statues and fountains.

 After a busy few days we thought we would take it easy today.   How perfect that right at the bottom of the Palace is a new favourite pizza restaurant.  After some good carbs it is time to start wandering again.

If you like seafood, Italy is definitely the place to be.  There were fresh fish in every restaurant.  Love taking pictures of them, but not in a hurry to eat one.  I was more than happy to settle for pasta and pizza.

This is definitely going to be worth a visit on the way back

The river Arno might be one of the quietest rivers I have ever seen, it could be called Glass or Mirror River, the reflections all along it were magnificent.

A wandering type of day sometimes means following the people.  River on the left, beautiful villas and houses on the right.  We come to this little road and people start to turn up it, so we do too.  We have no idea where we are going but what the heck.  What a find, other than the fact that I felt like we had just climbed up the equivalent of Mt Everest, we happened upon the Piazzale Michelangelo with just an amazing view of the city of Florence, along with another beautiful statue of the David and an open air market. 

After catching our breath as we wander around the square we realize we aren't at the top yet.  Just a we bit further up is the Church of San Salvatore, referred to by Michelangelo as "La bella Villanella".  As we walked around it there were the cries of babies and laughter of their parents reverberating around the church as today was a celebration of baptism.

So much for our relaxing day, looks like a new step record is going to be hit, as we start wandering back down the hill.  Looking forward to that glass of wine looking over the Arno.  Tomorrow the newlyweds and Al and Chris Graham arrive.  Lots to talk about, lots to do.