The next morning found us on the train headed to Florence. It seems as though Roger was taking pictures of me and my iPad on the train as well as a few sites out the window!
When we arrived in Florence, we encountered our first somewhat adverse weather since it was a little drizzly. Luckily, it was only drizzle and never a driving rain and it only lasted the one day.
Our hotel in Florence was the Corona d'Italia. It was only about three blocks from the Santa Maria Novella train station and we headed in the right direction on the first try. Right outside of our hotel was the start of several blocks of daily shops in the street. Even though we were not on a shopping mission, it was fun to wander through all of the street shops each day.
Despite the drizzle, we went for a walk and crossed over the River Arno to go to the Pitti Palace. The bridge we crossed was a regular, open bridge, but we could see that the next bridge over had buildings on it. So, we planned to check it out on the way back. The Pitti palace was the home of different wealthy families, mainly the Medici and Lorraine families. The over 344,000 square feet and about 100 acres of gardens were, at one time, a private residence. Today, the whole palace and gardens make up an amazing museum. We saw a great deal of grand art in this museum, including Ruben's Four Philosophers and Raphael's Madonna of the Chair.
Florence has many very narrow streets that are absolutely charming, but tough for motorized traffic. Therefore, many people drive scooters. This street lined with scooters led us to refer to Italy as "Sturgis East"!
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