Having cycled from Venice to Florence and handed the bike back to eurobike it was time to explore under my own steam. I met up with the cadre who had done the same cycling though the week for a final evening meal which was really nice.
Florence just drips culture. Statues and architecture everywhere. As per my modus operandi pre-booked tours ensured a knowledgable guide around the city and the stunning green and white cathedral. The chance to see Michelangelo’s statue of David and to tour the Uffizi galleries.
Having the opportunity to see such stunning and famous works of art for real was very emotional. It’s one thing to know of and have seen pictures of a painting, but to actually stand before it thinking - “that’s actually the Birth of Venus by Botticelli” or “OMG that’s da Vinci”. It isn’t really worth trying to get pictures – too many heads will be in the way so just buy a book from the inevitable gift shop. It was at this point it dawned on me I wasn’t going to fit everything into my backpack for the return flight so bought a small travel case and just booked the extra luggage with the airline.
The full day in Florence wasn’t on reflection enough, it would be easy to spend a week or more here alone. Checked out of the Florence hotel Sunday morning and took the train to Pisa. The double decker train was an interest in itself. One neat trick is to pay to leave your luggage at the station which although light was something not to be lugged around in the increasing heat of a serious +30°C heatwave. After a piece-of-pizza-in-pisa headed back to Florence and then onto Rome.
My stay in Rome was a little less fancy than the hotels originally being a convent. Modest rooms and atmospheric narrow winding stairways. A tour of the colosseum was followed by an exploration of the adjacent Roman forum. In the increasing heat I was rather glad of the straw panama I’d bought in Venice and public water taps. One interesting aspect raised (by the construction of a nearby new metro line) was the question of which history was displayed - any excavation in Rome has further history underneath. So at what point to you stop? What decides this feature is revealed and not the one in lower strata?
The evening was a tour through some of the forum ruins with a multimedia overlay added. Interesting enough but not really worth it or that informative.
Tuesday was an early start to tour the Vatican. I’d managed to make it a bit of a rush to get to the start point but made it on time. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much gold. You get the feeling that successive Popes have decorated in the “hmm, something in gold perhaps…” principle. However that approach does pay off when every room seems to have a masterpiece. And the Sistine chapel is just breathtaking. The organised tour ended there so I just sat for a while admiring Michelangelo’s work. Again.
Round the corner from the Vatican is St.Peters and by now the square was a sizzling cooker. Not sure why I’d not booked a tour, so that meant a bit of a queue to enter the Basilica. But wow. Vast and beautiful. A last evening trip to the Trevi fountain before checking out the next morning for the flight back to Birmingham.
Overall I was really pleased to have done the cycling and how well everything dovetailed together. The relaxed ease of no pressure cycling followed by a packed itinery actually felt like a workable combo. A really memorable trip.