Fourth Day

         Early in the Morning we drove to see the leaning tower of Pisa. It was poring down rain. Took our pictures really quick and stopped for a cappuccino and were on our way to Florence.

Pisa is very close to Florence so in no time we were trying to find a parking place. This is an impossible task, but finally we were able to park at the Hertz rental car place, from where we could take the tram in the city center. Everybody had a great time in the city. It did not even rain just a little.

Florence is a beautiful city, with lots of building and museum to see. It is located in the Arno river valley surrounded by olive-planted hills of Tuscany. The center is where most tourists spend most of their time is a tangle of medieval streets and squares.The center is encircled by a traffic ring of wide boulevards, known as the Viali, that were created in the late 1800s by tearing down the city's medieval walls. Since the 14th century the cultural heart of the city has been the Piazza della Signoria with the Palazzo Vecchio (Town Hall), the Uffizi Gallery and a large number of publicly displayed world famous sculptures.
During the early history of Italy a group of city-states were constantly fighting each other. In the Renaissance period Florence was one of the most powerful and influential of those states. The wealthy and powerful de' Medici family ruled the city almost continuously from 1434 to 1743 and had a great influence on the architecture and arts. They built an abundance of palaces all over the city and commissioned such artists as Michelangelo to design and decorate these and other buildings. Florence is called the capital of arts. From the 13th to the 16th century it was a seemingly endless source of creative masterpieces and Italian genius. Both Dante and Michelangelo were born there. The Italian Renaissance began in Florence when the artist Brunelleschi finished the Duomo, the cathedral, with the huge dome. Florence is also a city of incomparable indoor pleasures. Its chapels, galleries and museums are an inexhaustible treasure, capturing the complex, often elusive spirit of the Renaissance more fully than any other place in the country.

This is the beautiful view from Michelangelo square.

After a whole day of fun in Florence we drove to Venice. We had some challenging mess up with the rooms in Venice and ended up with a better accommodation but it took half of our night away. Some of us however had a lot of fun while waiting.....