Florence

As we move on through my Cruise Series, we now find ourselves in Florence, a city brimming over with amazingly beautiful architecture and art.

First, my little video  - it comes in under 3 minutes and captures the essence of the city.  

The cathedral was so beautiful and absolutely huge.  There’s also footage of our deluge experience, so well worth a look. 

And with no particular order to my photos due to my iPhone download limitations, I share with you now my pictorial memories of Florence.

Our tour bus took us up to the perfect vantage point to capture a panoramic of the city.

Our tour bus stopped off at a perfect vantage point outside the city to capture some fabulous panoramics.

The bustling square cleared in a nano second when a thunderclap overhead emptied its heavy load upon the city.

The hailstones were the size of hazelnuts, and hurt - it felt like we were under fire as we raced the few yards from coffee shop to cathedral.  The video at the beginning of this post includes some footage of the deluge. 

Just before the deluge.

I'm an untidy tourist.

Ponte Veccio, with a hint of finger!

A la perchoine,

Mary x.

Pisa

Pisa.

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I loved this place.  It exceeded my expectations. .

And what sealed it for me?  
The toilets!  Fresh, modern ... Simple to gain entry.  You pay 80c, end of.

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Which for Italy is certainly saying something!  The country's toilets seems to bogged down (see what I did there?!) in bureaurocratic red tape: a minimum of two “guards of the portal” and an extremely convoluted and sometimes v. imaginative riddle to crack to understand how each individual convenience operates - all this just to spend a penny! 

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Unemployment? Sorted!

But of course Pisa is so much more than toilets.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa is the big attraction, not its toilets!

The leaning bell tower emits a feel good vibe.  It's pretty.  It's exactly what it says on the tin.  It's a pretty old tower, well maintained over the centuries, and it leans.  

It leans by 4 degrees in fact, and sits behind the city’s beautiful cathedral.

It's quite amazing that the tower is still standing.

Well, perhaps it's had a bit of support from The Photographer!

There was also a beautiful baptistry in the grounds.

So Pisa.

Well worth visiting.

So as you can see,  there's more to Pisa than just the leaning tower, as there are other beautiful and historical sights to discover in its grounds.

Like those now quite famous toilets!

A la perchoine,

Mary x.