Day 58 - Florence Italy

Photo 1: In the marble mine

2: riding bikes in Lucca

3: Veronica and Tilly

4: Vernazza in Cinque Terra

5: Marble mine

6: View from our place in Tuscany

7: Juliette's balcony in Verona

Yesterday, Tilly spent many hours with Veronica. Veronica makes handmade ceramics that she paints and sells at markets. She has a small studio here at Luscignano which is 600 years old. K gave her our left over food and spent many hours trying to chat and bought some of her work. Tilly stayed on to make her own work of art - a mug which Veronica will send on to Australia as it needs to be kiln dried.

We need to return the rental car in Florence by 12.30 as they are closed until Monday after this time so we were up early for the two hour drive. We are staying at Casa Per Ferie - a several centuries old monastery. It is a block from the Cathedrale di Santa Marla del Flore and as a permit is required to drive in Florence Central, parking needed to be organized and paid for hence the return of the car prior to booking in. I took a wrong turn off on the autostrade which added another thirty minutes to our journey. Stopping for additional tolls then getting petrol we made returning the car with two minutes to spare.

We caught a local bus to Florence Central and walked 15 minutes to the Monastery. It is run by nuns who speak very, very little English but told us they could not find our reservation. Eventually we were told we could have a smaller room with two beds and the kids would share a foldout until tomorrow. So after settling in which included helping one of the nuns rearrange the furniture to accommodate the foldout bed, a five bed room suddenly became available much to our delight.

We walked around town and to the Tourist Information Centre to get a map of the sights. Tomorrow we'll check out the town and its back streets a little further. Whilst doing this, we walked into the middle of a march by people waving flags and chanting. They were the European Democracy demanding a United States of Europe with one ruling government. There were plenty of police following on foot, cars and riot trucks. 

There is no Internet here so I can only access by finding somewhere that does. In tonight's case it is an Irish pub.

Happy Mothers Day to all the mums. Hope you all have a great day and get spoilt.