Venice to Florence

We left the way we arrived - via the canals on a vaporetto. After our Venetian sojourn, we back on the EuroStar to Florence leaving behind memories of gondolas, pigeons, gelatos and labyrithian lanes.

1.St Mark's Square - Campanile on the left, St Mark's Basilica in the middle and the Palazzo Ducale on the right.	2.The Santa Maria della Salute church

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Florence

All of us slept pretty much the whole trip from Venice to Florence. Florence was a much bigger place than I had expected ! I was expecting a medieval town steeped in ways of its past - cobblestone streets etc.. In some ways, this is still the medieval city that I had in my mind but it takes a bit of imagination to peel back the layers of pollution, grime and the hustle and bustle in order to picture what Florence would have been like during the Medici era.

I have to say that my first impressions of Florence weren't very positive. This could be due in a large part of an expectations gap on my part. Anyway, the hotel that we booked was about a 10 minute walk from the central station. It was also very close to a large market near the Duomo.

After settling into the hotel, the girls were quite keen to go and check out the nearby markets and to perhaps acquire some leather products that Florence is famous for.

Here are some first impression images of Florence.

3. Images of Florence

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Leather-o-rama !

I really don't know what Florence's connection is with the leather trade but there's a heck of a lot of it around here ! We spent the whole afternoon exploring the markets near our hotel. If it's made of leather, it was to be found here ! The quality of the leather goods were really good as well and the prices were quite good.

Every single one of us bought a leather jacket. Well some of us (Albert and William and the girls in particular !) bought multiple jackets.

At least we got the shopping out of the way during our first day in Florence.

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