My Days in Florence

ST LUKE'S: So what did I do in Florence when I wasn't wandering around buying €9 ice creams or galavanting around Tuscany? Some of the following:

Foodmarkets: After sitting in a coffee shop reading the IHT for an hour and a half waiting for the rain to pass, a pleasureable enough way to idle away the hours in itself, I walked across a piazza and into a giant food market with fresh produce on the second floor and a full range of delis on the bottom. I wandered around trying dried fruits, cheeses and hams before settling on a place for a delicious ham and cheese pannini, made from the ham and cheese of my choice. Sadly my hostel didn't have a kitchen so I couldn't stock up on stuff to take home and cook.

The Uffizi: When I tried to book tickets I was told they were booked out. This condemned me to three hours standing in line despite arriving half an hour after the doors opened at 8:30. And the massive queue meant I missed the finish to the Florence Marathon which was being run on the same day.

Inside the Gallery was a slight disappointment. It's poorly maintained, especially compared to its illustrious Western European rivals. It's art collection is ok but focussed almost entirely on the Renaissance. And it's absolutely packed with tourists wondering which pictures they're supposed to be looking at and for how long.

Despite this the Botticelli Rooms were absolutely stunning. The painter's reputation rests, largely, on the paintings in this gallery and it is a reputation thorougly deserved. There were also some stunning Raphael's, a lovely terrace and sundry other wonderful paintings by the Great Masters. But from a gallery I'd hoped to deliver so much, I was left longing.

The Bargello: I'd never even heard of this little gallery but the Rough Guide said it was Florence's best sculpture musuem so I got up early to beat the crowds, stopping for a cappucinno and croissant at my local breakfast joint (1.70 - the price fluctuations in this country!!!), and braved the rain. When I got there the place was virtually empty. It boasts the best collection of Donatello, some Bernini's, and a couple of Michelangelo's.

It was a small, idiosyncratic gallery built around an open forecourt. It was lovely to be able to wander and enjoy the sculptures and the other objects unmolested by the tourist crowds.

Churches in Florence: I visited a few churches in Florence. Beginning with the Duomo, with its enormous dome and stadium sized interior, then moving on to a church boasting the tombs of Machievelli, Dante, Gallileo and Marconi, the inventor of the radio.

This isn't everything I did in Florence but it's a lot of things. I'll finish the rest of shortly.