We took the Eurostar train from Venice to Florence this morning. It was a much better experience than our trip from Paris to Venice. We checked into the Plaza Hotel Lucchesi. It’s a beautiful hotel on the river. Today is a holiday only in Florence. It is a celebration for the patron saint of this city – Saint John. As we walked through the streets, we watched a parade…
…and tonight, there will be thousands of people in the streets along the river bank to watch the fireworks (they have already begun to gather). We have the perfect place to watch as our hotel moved us to a room with the most incredible view!
Today, we walked the streets of Florence, did a little shopping, saw some amazing architecture, and ate more gelato. We were in one of the public piazzas where there were street performers. As we walked through the crowd, one of the mimes started following Cindy. To the delight of the crowd (and through my laughter), he pulled her to the side and gave her a kiss – leaving white makeup on her nose and face. He swooned and held his heart as she walked away. It was a great candid moment; unfortunately, the battery on my videocamera was dead!! One of the most amazing things we saw were the sidewalk artists creating chalk art on the ground. It was so beautiful.
We roamed the city for about 5 hours and started back to our hotel. We stopped for some food to take back to the room so we would be ready for the fireworks tonight.
