Day 14 - FLORENCE

 Well, what a day we had! Thought today we would attempt to find the Boboli Gardens that the Concierge at our hotel told us to go to. We headed to the river Arno which, by the way, is a lovely walk but not in the middle of the day when it is 32 degreesC and climbing! Thinking we needed shelter from the intense sun, we called into a couple of shops and you know the drill! We headed for the Ponte Vecchio which was amazing as people still live on this bridge, along with all the jewellery shops lining both sides.

Then that’s when our day became interesting, me with a map (bad mistake by Kim), by the way my map was cut off at the Boboli Gardens. I thought if we came round from the back we would get in (don’t forget my map was cut off so only saw half of gardens and thinking that you would have more than one entry) started our climb up this hill. After about 5mins into the walk, asked a man on the side of the road where it was and he said 15mins up hill. So me thinking not so bad lets go, well 30mins later and no closer to those bloody gardens and we’re now on a narrow road where the rich people live and NO!!! no-one stopped to help 2 middle age women obviously knackered and wondering where the hell are those gardens. Up and over this very big hill, would put the Wainui hill to shame, we came upon another man, so I asked if we were heading in the right direction and he said 5mins and turn right.  Well, we are heading down hill now and thinking maybe we are in another city!!!  as we have being walking for over an hour now. Well, came upon another man but this one was old and he changed glasses and looked at our map and said oh yes 10mins turn right at the end of the road. I was thinking by this stage ‘those bloody gardens better be worth it’, and they weren’t (check the photos) We left home at 9.15am arrived at the gardens 1pm (I know you are laughing by now).

Well, clever thinking on our part, we decided to get the on-off bus (What a brilliant idea by 2 menopausal women who have just climbed Everest only to see nothing!) We sat on that bus for about 30mins till we got back to the station, we were not getting off, so waiting on the bus, off it took and would you believe it we passed those bloody gardens about 4 times that day!! ) Ah yes, just a little hint if you ever do the on-off bus and you are sitting on the top watch for low hanging trees. We went up to a small town 300 meters above Florence called Fiesole, the views of Florence were spectacular. Watch for low hanging branches there too as Kim had her cap whacked off her head when she was taking a photo! We have scars to prove it and memory loss caused by being hit on the head. But all in all a great day!