Florence with Fabricio

Our day in Florence Italy began with a buffet breakfast on the ship. Then, we disembarked and waited several fretful minutes for the driver/guide from the tour company, RomeinLimo to arrive. Based onthe name I expected a limo (what else?!) and I held my breath as wewalked by several beat-up Nissans and arrived in front of a stunningMercedes-Benz.

Our driver for Florence and Pisa was an Italian man named Fabricio (am I spelling that right?) who was very knowledgeable about the area and who had many jokes to share. It was about an hour’s drive to Florence, a town with many architectural and artistic masterpieces that I was looking forward to seeing.

Our first stop in Florence was the Santa Croce church that contained the graves of Galileo and Michelangelo. Other than that, there was a dome, a couple of paintings, sculptures, and some tombs to see. Then, Fabricio picked us up and we went to see St. John’s Basilica, also known as Florence Cathedral the other important church in Florence. We didn’t go inside the church this time, but we did look at the façade and Bruneleski’s famous dome.

After that, we walked a couple hundred meters to Florence’s town hall, where there was an open-air statuary exhibit. Two notable statues in the exhibit were Perseus, a statue of Perseus holding Medusa’s head, and a statue of some guy fighting a centaur. Fabricio arrived at the square several minutes later and handed us tickets to the Uffizi gallery, one of the oldest and most interesting museums in Europe.

Fortunately for us, the Uffizi gallery was right next to the town hall. As we expected, the entrance to the Uffizi gallery was packed, but we pushed through the mob and into the entrance. Unfortunately, like almost any other art gallery of its kind, the Uffizi did not allow photographs to be taken inside the gallery. I found that out while snapping a (bad) picture of The Birth of Venus, the most famous painting in the Uffizi gallery. Some lady took the liberty of tapping me on the shoulder and saying “No photo,” probably because she was mad that she couldn’t take any photos and just wanted to spoil it for me.

Mostly, the Uffizi gallery had four types of art: busts of (famous?) people, paintings with or of naked women, landscape paintings, and paintings showing large crowds of people doing things. When we exited, Fabricio took us to a restaurant close to the Uffizi run by an old Tuscan man. They had all kinds of pasta and meat with different sauces to choose from, but it was strange to see that they had no pizza! (We were in Italy, what else could I expect?) We ordered, and the food was brought to us very quickly.

We were soon back on the road, heading for a museum of statuary called something along the lines of  “l’Academia” to see Michelangelo’s most famous statue, the David. We arrived, entered, and rushed past several exhibitions in our excitement to see the David. Finally, we arrived in a room, and there we saw it. A magnificent fifteen-foot tall white statue of a naked man with a sling over his shoulder and a rock in his hand. And, yet again, there were no photos allowed, and this time they meant it. I spotted at least two security guards walking around telling people to stop taking photos. It seemed that the David was popular enough that almost one-third of the people in the room tried to take a picture. And, my dad held up his camera, the guard approached, she opened her mouth, my dad pressed the shutter and he took the photo. He laughed nervously and the lady scolded him. Immediately, the security guard lady walked over to a phone and started speaking into it. Minutes later, an announcement came on that strictly no photos were permitted. We quickly walked out and admired our sole picture of the David. 

On our way out of Florence, my dad spotted a huge hill in one corner of the city and told Fabricio he wanted to take a picture from the top. Fabricio said okay, and he drove us up the winding road to the top of the hill. At the top, there was a fabulous view of Florence, and you could see all of the tallest, most popular landmarks. We took several pictures, and started back down the hill and out of town. 

About 45 minutes out of Florence, we began to see signs for Pisa, and Fabricio said that we could take a short detour and buy some of Italy’s finest cherries. We said yes, and soon Fabricio was taking us down a country road. Then, we saw a fruit vendor.

The fruit vendor had a small stand by the side of the road next to a truck. We pulled up to the fruit vendor, and we got out of the car. Fabricio proceeded to buy some cherries for us and for himself. We got back in the car and we all ate the cherries on our way to Pisa. 

When we arrived in Pisa, all the cherries were gone and we were ready to watch the scenery. Fabricio told us about the importance of Pisa as we drove around. Pisa was actually pretty big and had a number of things to see, including some parks, the Leaning Tower, and the smallest gothic church in the world. Of course, all of us were very excited about seeing the Leaning Tower of Pisa, but Fabricio knew this and took us on a route where we would be teased by fleeting glimpses of the monument. We began to shout for joy when we saw it peek over the top of the buildings. Fabricio pretended not to see it, and parked after showing us a Templar Knights building. 

 We got out and walked over to the tower. It was amazing. The tower was situated right next a large cathedral that was in front of a grass field. The paths were mobbed, as no one could go on the grass, and everyone was taking a picture. Naturally, we took a fair share of pictures, including the ever-popular “I’m-holding-up-the-tower!” picture. 

All of us almost got lost in the crowd, and we beat a hasty retreat before someone actually got lost. We got back into the car, and Fabricio began to drive us towards Livorno, where the ship had docked. Along the way, Fabricio shared many jokes, stories and facts about the area. Finally, we arrived back.

Fabricio and our "Limo"