Day 3: Florence

I woke up today to the sound of rain hammering. Much of Europe was on the receiving end of a hurricane, and Italy was no exception. I was equipped only for sunny weather and my first thought was that I was going to get soaked when I went out to buy breakfast. I did indeed.

As luck would have it, the rain abated not long afterwards and we were able to head to the train station on foot, sparing us the rip-off taxi fare of 9€ that one rob-dog had charged us for the five-minute drive on our first night. We were off to Florence.

Clare and I had been twice before and so I knew what to expect. I also knew that Florence is so replete with sights that we had to make a second visit previously to fit everything in. That's not good for a seven-year-old and so I made a conscious decision just to get the best things in.

That meant turning a corner and seeing the Duomo spring out of nowhere:

It really is a collosal structure, and it's easy to see why it's the jewel in Florence's crown:

The facade is really elaborate:

And so is the detail in the statures which adorn it:

We saw lots of statues and other lovely buildings whilst walking around, but nothing so eminent as what beheld us at Piazza Santa Croce. There was the statue of Dante as a warm-up:

But that was only minor compared to the basilica which it was beside:

The square was full of statues, including this one of one of the Medici:

And many others:

Standing in the middle was this one after carrying out a decapitation!

The inside of the basilica is beautiful:

And there were even some lions for Alfie to pose in front of:

We went off to try some ice cream because the sun was bearing down on us and then headed back to the apartment. On the way we passed a street flanked by twenty or thirty statues of luminaries. I didn't necessarily recognise any of them until I caught a glimpse of my humanist hero at the very end:

It was fitting, really. We'd started the holiday in town of his birth and we were going to finish it in the town of the world's first university. But first there was the small matter of a boys' night in watching Star Wars and eating pizza.