Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Day 17 - Florence to Sorrento


Our hotel in Florence was located directly across from the main railway station, right in the middle of the city and not far from all the famous churches and museums. Our room had a balcony so we were able to open the door and let some air in…but not for long – it was very noisy and we couldn’t even hear each other speak. Other than that the room was nice with the hotel recently undergoing extensive renovations. Anyway, after not enough sleep we were up and at ‘em once again and downstairs at 7.50am to commence a walking tour of the old part of Florence that we had learned about on the DVD viewed the previous day. The buildings and sculptures were amazing. We were especially interested in a sculpture of Gallileo as one of the horses we have picked for the annual O’Shea Melbourne Cup trifecta is Gallileo’s Choice, sure to run well along with Red Cadeaux, our other pick. I’m sure you can tell that these were chosen on their form and had nothing to do with their names reminding us of the French and Italian parts of our trip!
 

The next and most important part of the tour was to visit a leather factory and search for handbags. After an hour of solid shopping looking at nothing but handbags (a very long time for me, the non-shopper) I found THE one – thanks to Moops who financed it! It was then back on the bus at 11.45am to commence the over 400km drive to Sorrento.
 

A long day of travelling ensued – we didn’t stop until 2.45pm for lunch and were back on the road at 3.30pm finally arriving in Sorrento at 6.45pm for our 7.15pm dinner. Unfortunately it was dark for the last couple of hours so although we were driving next to the Bay of Naples we were unable to really see it properly and we are looking forward to seeing it tomorrow when we go to the Isle of Capris. While on the coach we spend the time either reading (the kindles are getting a workout), sleeping (only short bursts and not much really), or listening to Patricia’s commentary and stories. The time passes quite pleasantly and the scenery changes from day to day, enough to keep us happy anyway.
 

We had a nice dinner and then spent an hour exploring and shopping. Carly had some nutella gelato that she said was amazing! It was then off to the hotel where we arrived at about 10pm. Showers and bed, no wifi, early start tomorrow.
 

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