Hot and humid in Firenze

I forgot to mention in yesterdays post about the drive to Austria. We were in a short string of cars, mostly Italian,  and just after we crossed the border there was a lot of braking and a number of the cars peeled off to the service stations. It didn't take us long to figure out why. The fuel in Austria was between 30 and 40 cents cheaper than in Italy. Sadly we were close to full so couldn't take advantage.

Tuesday 3rd, Wednesday 4th July

One final parting shot of the Dolomites - the morning we left.

A quiet couple of days just travelling southward towards Florence. We visited a couple of walled towns along the way but apart from the wall, there was not a lot to grab us. One we visited late in the day with a plan to eat dinner there, only to find the town centre effectively close down around 8pm.

A few different villages and their towers and clock towers.

Stayed in a lovely B&B the first night in a quiet little town, and the second night stayed in a hotel just south of Bologna where we were relieved to find they had a very reasonably priced dinner menu - and the food was good too.

Thursday 5th July

Today we finished our drive into Florence.  A good drive for the most part along a winding hilly road, very little traffic, and generally the road was in good condition.  The last part of the trip in to Florence though was no fun with heavy traffic and requiring a lot of concentration from the driver, and me paying close attention to Dora. We arrived at the hotel at lunchtime so plenty of time to get settled before we met Gail.

We are very pleased with our hotel - location is great, we can walk in to the city, or catch a bus, and we are not far from the park where they are doing the dragon boat racing. It's 200m to the supermarket, laundromat across the road, plenty of food choice within 500m.

We met up with Gail around 4pm and spent a couple of hours catching up before heading out to dinner. Gail had booked a restaurant called Trattoria Sostanza where they are famous for their butter chicken. We both thought, yum, Indian!  Nope, it is bbq'd chicken breast swimming in butter and with lemon juice. We all ordered it and it was delicious. From dinner we strolled across the river to a gelati place recommended by our fellow diners from Chicago - yes, gelati was yum too.

Walking the streets in Florence. 

The Duomo in Florence - photo taken from the tower of Gail's hotel.
Her hotel is really interesting - looks like it might have been a huge palazzo
in its former life and has been converted to a hotel.
Lots of interesting passages and rooms.
A lovely sitting area on 3rd floor with high wooden ceilings.
We only saw a small part of the hotel, but looked very nice.

The river Arno - also taken from the tower.
This is in the direction of the park where
the dragon boat racing is happening.

Palazzo Vecchio - the town hall.

Ate here on a recommendation.
Their butter chicken is the dish they are famous for,
and it exceeded our expectations.
If you don't have a booking, forget it!

Last night's sunset.
We missed the best part of it as we waited in the queue for gelati.

10pm and Gail headed back to her hotel and us in the opposite direction to ours. As Gail said, 'it's a long way to go for a family catch-up'.