Strolling around Florence

Our day begins with a walking tour of Florence. Asked to be there fifteen minutes in advance the husband decided it had to be half an hour in advance so we hang around waiting while I fume and the husband is calm and collected. The guide is late so we start the tour late. This is Italy I am getting used to their ways. A few minutes into the walk and I am convinced the guide hasn't a clue what he is talking about. Thankfully I speed read Rick steins book on Florence so was up to scratch on its famous landmarks. If all this wasn't enough it started to pour. Suddenly the streets are filled with umbrellas and milling crowds. The duomo is packed,and with pickpockets in anudance I have to be on high alert and clutching my handbag while dodging the umbrellas not the finest way to see the city. In the meanwhile the guide drones on and on. A tedious two hours later we are rid of him but are waiting for our next tour which is the uffizi gallery.

The sky is grey and heavy with clouds so we start our walk away from the crowds towards the piazza Michelangelo. It's a stunning walk towards this square but our tour begins at three in the afternoon and the husband is a,ready anxious that we will miss it never mind that we have at least half an hour to go. We head back to wait for our guide at the gallery and the rain pours. My spirits are dipping at all the time we waste waiting for people because we are over anxious but one must weigh the highs and lows and decided what outweighs what. Unfortunately the guide on this tour is no better than the one of the morning. He spends a full fifteen minutes giving us an art lesson on three paintings ,and none of it interesting. I am beginning to think he is some failed artist and soon many others are getting restless too. We decide to leave the man to his lecture and get ahead And see all the Italian masterpieces T our own pace. The only reason we took the tour was that the crowds at the entry was frightening. All in all the men guides are a big disappointment and have no sense of humour either. Too caught up in their own history they forget to see the lighter side of life. Though I must admit the same can't be said of the other women guides on the tours out of Florence. The girls Re fluent in at least five languages,have very pleasant attitude and know what they are talking about,besides which they are efficient.

We end the day with a meal in our favourite place and chat up two women one from Cape Town and the other from Perth and end the night with plenty of laughter. The highlight was an earthquake at three the previous night which the husband work up to but I told him to stop being paranoid and slept through it. Since earthquakes seem common in Florence no one was making a fuss and for that I am glad.