Saturday: Off to Florence

 Saturday morning we headed for Florence, but stopped along the way at the U.S. WWII Cemetery.  The stop was not on the tour itenerary  and I suspect was made to give our hotel time to get our rooms ready, but it was definitely one of those places you did not know you wanted to see until you were there.

By the time we got to Florence our rooms were ready.  The hotel was really neat, close to the river, and, according to the desk staff, had the highest viewing deck in the city other than the cathedral.  

After giving us time to drop off our luggage, Colleen led those of us who wanted to go to the Central Market where we could buy lunch.  Since we had seen this on several YouTube videos we joined in this excursion. We ended up getting pizza and the whole experience was kind of like the mall food court the Saturday before Christmas--very crowded and loud.  I guess it was authentic.  

We were in our room resting when my husband, who no matter where we are seems to find a parade, heard music.  He said it sounded like a parade so we headed out to see what we could find.  Just around the corner we saw guys in costumes leaving a building, and lining up as for a parade.  After the resquite joke about him always being able to find a parade (his hobby is collecting Mardi Gras doubloons and he loves parades), we headed back to the hotel to meet the group, somewhat curious about what was going on.  

Our local guide joined us an took us on a walking tour of the city.  The parade found us, and she knew what it was all about and the tour stopped to allow us to enjoy the parade.  That was the day of the Historical Football parade.  Teams from different neighborhood first parade together and then play against each other.  You can read about the game here. 

Our local guide showed us the outside of the cathedral as well as a main square that had a reproduction of David.  We then headed for the Uffizi where went in and got the obligatory photo with David and then admired the other works on display.  While in there I met a man who was on Rick Steves' Rome, Florence, Venice tour.  He said he was having a good time but was getting a little tired of art museums. It made me glad we had picked this tour instead.  

We were on our own for dinner Saturday night and found a little place around the corner from the hotel.  The lady running the place asked if we could return in thirty minutes so we took a short walk and came upon a piazza that had a statue of one of the Medicis holding the scales of justice and a lovely church.  I guess we weren't in a picture-taking mood by that time.  Dinner was good, but I don't remember what we ate.