From: Burchio
To: Florence
Miles: 16
Total: 844
What a great day we had today. The weather was perfect, the breakfast at the B&B in Burchio was excellent, and except for the very poor quality of the mattresses we experienced last night, and a slight false start by me this morning, it couldn’t have been much better.
We stepped off at 9:00 sharp and as I always do as we’re walking those first few minutes every morning, I started going over in my mind everything I packed in by backpack. Clothes bag, check; toiletries bag, check; jacket, check; cellphone/iPad charger, ????? Wait. I didn’t remember packing my charger this morning. So Dave got into the top compartment of my pack, and sure enough, no charger. So back up the hill I went to retrieve my charger. It was still plugged in where I left it. Good thing we didn’t get farther down the road than we did.
We had a fairly significant climb for the morning, but it was downhill all afternoon. You probably are thinking “that’s nice; downhill is good.” Well not so fast. Downhill can be a real pain, especially steep downhill. It puts strain on muscles in you back and legs you didn’t even know you had, not to mention how your feet go pushing toward the front of your shoes. Let’s just say we’d much rather have level terrain or a little uphill than steep downhill.
By lunchtime, we were in the edge of Florence and stopped in a small cafe for a quick break and a bit to eat. From there it was straight down city streets and across the Arno River into Florence.
I can’t say enough about Florence, Italy. It’s my third time here and Dave has been here before as well. Florence is the capital of the Tuscany Region of Italy. Back in Medieval European times, Florence was one of the wealthiest cities in the world. It was the birthplace of the Renaissance and just about everyone who became famous in the arts from that period have some ties to Florence. Probably the most famous was Michelangelo, who was born just outside Florence in 1475. Many of his paintings and sculptures are displayed in the museums in Florence, including his famous sculpture of the biblical hero David. There are many famous buildings and museums to see here. One in particular is Santa Maria del Fiore, also known as “The Duomo.” Built between 1296 and 1436, it’s one of the most popular tourist attractions here. Dave and I walked around The Duomo today, along with thousands of other sightseers.
Tomorrow is scheduled as a day off from walking. The weather is forecast to be beautiful again so we’ll take advantage of that and see some more of the sights. Meanwhile, we hope your weekend was as enjoyable as ours was.
