We did our last load of washing before we ventured out to explore the historical centre. Got to the bus stop when I remembered that in Italy, you don't pay the driver, you need to purchase tickets at a Tabac or news stand. There was a little news stand a few steps away so we purchased 2 tickets at €2.40 each. Tickets have to be validated at a machine on the bus and we needed one ticket to go and one to return. Each ticket is valid on buses, trams, and trains, and lasts for 90 minutes, so I'm guessing that you can continue to travel on another bus, tram or train with the same ticket until the 90 minutes from validation is up.
The instructions for the stop we were to get off at weren't much use as the buses seemed to be deviating from their regular routes, so we travelled to the station at Santa Maria Novella, using our map to walk and navigate from there.
Our second stop was the Duomo - we'd called into the Piazza at Santa Maria Novella so Lindy could get some photos. There were crowds of people - one would almost think it was the height of the high season, rather than the end of it. It was so crowded that 2e didn't get to the front of the Baptistry to see the Gates of Paradise - that will have to wait for another visit.
We walked on, finding our way past lots of little shops, to the Piazza della Signoria. I wanted Lindy to see the statue of David here so she can compare it to the original, which we will see on Thursday.
After negotiating the crowds in the Piazza, we fought even more to get some photos of the Ponte Vecchio.
We crossed the Arno there and wandered through part of the Oltrarno district. We found a few souvenirs and saw some beautiful artwork, particularly colourful, painted ceramics, and Lindy found a leather purse she was wanting.
We crossed back over the Ponte Vecchio and walked down to Santa Croce, where Michelangelo is buried. It was past lunchtime so we sat in the piazza (lucky to get some space on a stone,'bench') and ate the fruit we'd brought with us.
After a little rest, we decided to visit the church. The wind was picking up and it was getting a bit chilly - at least we'd warm up inside and maybe get to sit for awhile. We paid €6 each to go into the church, which has intricate beamed ceilings and some lovely stained glass windows. A number of other famous people are either buried here, or have memorials to them. We saw Marconi (inventor of the radio), Machiavelli and Dante Alighieri to name just a few.
We also visited what had been the private chapel of the Medici family, and walked out into the garden.
After our tour, we decided we were all seen enough for one day so walked down towards the river to follow it up a couple of bridges beyond the Ponte Vecchio. That led us to the station, where we could find our bus home. It didn't turn out to be that simple though (what is ever simple in Italy?) because the bus stop had been moved! There was a sign (in Italian only, and hard to read because it was up high and it kept blowing in the wind) that said that there were deviations in place. The buses listed at that stop now did not include ours! We faced a 45 minute walk home but Lindy suggested we look at the stops in the middle of the road. There we found another sign (again, hard to see or read because of its height and the wind) that announced that this was a temporary stop for line 1 - the bus we wanted. When the bus arrived, we asked the driver if it stopped at Maffei. Apparently I wasn't pronouncing it correctly but he corrected me (Maffay), shrugged and said 'si', very offhandedly. We took our seats and just hoped we would arrive home, and not be dropped in some out of the way place. Shortly before the bus left the stop, a very young and attractive French girl got on and asked the driver a question. He sat up straight and was very helpful. He must have felt a bit remorseful about treating us so poorly because he called out 'Maffei' when we reached our stop which, thankfully, was just across the little river from our street.
My head cold, which had been improving, worsened during the day (probably the wind) and I finished the day with a bit of a fever and a chesty cough. A day of rest tomorrow (except for a little walk in the local area) should see it improve. We have an appointment with David on Thursday and I'm not going to miss that.
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