Early Sunday morning we awoke to catch the 6:20 bus from Siena to Florence. On Sundays the bus and train schedule is limited, forcing us onto the early bus in order to reach Florence in time for our “Florence in One Glorious Day” tour we had scheduled.
On reaching Florence we had an hour before our walking tour of the city began, so we had a leisurely breakfast. The heat was already rising as our day began.
Our Florence tour was actually three separate tours, with a morning walking tour of the city, followed by separate tours of the Uffizi and the Accademia museums. As we set out through the streets of Florence our Belgian guide pointed out highlights of the city, while explaining its place as leader of the Italian Renaissance under the guidance of the Medici family.
The Medicis rose from rural obscurity to become the bankers of the Renaissance, beginning with Giovanni di Bicci, whose two sons Cosimo and Lorenzo established the two lines of the family that ruled Florence for almost three hundred years. In the process they provided patronage to such notables as Michelangelo, Botticelli, Galileo,Machiavelli and Titian. The final surviving member of the family Ana Maria Lodovica, leaving no heirs, willed her family’s estates and art collection to the city of Florence in 1743, creating the Uffizi Gallery.

Highlights of our walk included the Ponte Vecchio with its shops arcing across the Arno River, several churches and piazzas historic to the city and the unification of Italy (Florence was the first capital). The ornate cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, with its marble facade, dome by Brunelleschi and bronze doors by Lorenzo Ghiberti called the “Gate of Paradise” was spectacular.

After finishing our morning tour we stopped for lunch, most of us had cheese tortelli with walnuts and pears with a nice bottle of white wine. Then it was off to the Uffizi. Our guide for the museums was a British art historian and antique dealer named Kate, who came to Florence 28 years ago and never left. With her expert commentary we spent two hours at the Uffizi, wending our way through late medieval art, to early and late Renaissance painting and sculpture. Botticelli’s ‘Birth of Venus’ and Titian’s ‘Venus of Urbino’ were my favorites.

A Brief break for cooling water, we were then off to the Accademia. There is really only one reason for that museum and that is Michelangelo’s sculptural masterpiece ‘David’. As Kate explained the history of the sculpture and described Michelangelo’s style and significance we wound through the galleries past his four unfinished sculptures called ‘The Prisoners’. At the far end of the room in its own rotunda stood David. Seventeen feet high on its pedestal and so perfectly formed you can see the veins on hands and neck it is a breathtaking sight.

Museums over,  it is back to Siena. We have missed our bus, but fortunately there is a train in 20 minutes. The train is cool and pleasant. We reach Siena, stop for groceries at the convenient store in the station and set off on a quick walk back to the apartment.
Alas, it is not to be. A wrong turn as we leave the station takes us in the opposite direction and we walk at least two kilometers before realizing our mistake. Laden with groceries, hot, tired, and surly, we walk back and reach our apartment at 10 p.m. To late for dinner, we eat leftovers and go to bed. Death March all over again. Tomorrow we rest in Siena.