The ‘Beast from the East’ and Storm Emma made us wonder whether we would get away at all but by our departure day the snow had melted at home and local transport was getting back to normal, so our journey to London was uneventful. Much of the rest of the country was still suffering from the effects of which had battered the UK and other parts of Europe in the preceding few days. From our hotel near London City Airport we could see planes landing and were reassured that we would be on our way the following day. On arrival in Florence we treated to an upgrade by the hotel and settled in. It was situated a little out of the old city centre which turned out to be a blessing as even out of season, the old city is very busy. A 10-minute bus ride got us to the Duomo and cost less than it would in Edinburgh.

On our first morning we left the queues outside the Duomo and headed for the Leonardo da Vinci Museum. Florence is littered with museums and the very keen can opt for the 72 in 72 hours prepaid card, but it is probably better to be selective if you only have a few days. I find I can only process one gallery per day. The Leonardo da Vinci Museum has models of his many inventions and also covers his exploration of human anatomy. Most of his drawings are held elsewhere in the world, some at Windsor Castle. The museum has interactive sections where children can build models. Afterwards, fortified with coffee, we wandered down towards the river where the Ponte Vecchio was very crowded.

The craze for putting padlocks on bridges has reached Florence.

Walking around the city we encountered a chocolate market. Florence is well-supplied with bookshops, both new and secondhand and a lovely shop selling hand-printed paper where I bought some gifts. Navigating around some parts were made tricky due to the tram system work and extensions.

On our second day we visited the Galleria dell’Accademia getting soaked en route by a heavy thunderstorm and hail.

The gallery is housed in rooms dating from the 14th century and which used to be part of the hospital of San Mateo and a monastery. It is famous for Michelangelo’s David

but also houses the four statues of the Slaves commissioned by pope Julius II as a decoration of his grave which are known as “The Prisoners” and other works. There are rooms full of medieval and later paintings by Florentine artists, rooms devoted to plaster models for sculpture, fabrics and a museum of musical instruments.


It was certainly worth getting there early as when we left in the late morning, it was getting fairly busy. The sun had emerged, so we had our lunch on a bench in a piazza with pigeons and house sparrows watching in case we dropped a crumb.

Our second day coincided with International Women’s Day. The Uffizi Gallery had an exhibition devoted to the work of Elisabetta Sirani, an Italian Baroque painter from Bologna. I was not familiar with her work. She died unexpectedly at 27 but in her short life produced 200 paintings, 15 etchings, and hundreds of drawings. The most frequently depicted woman in the Uffizi is of course the Virgin Mary but I also spotted this series of paintings, some by Botticelli, each woman representing a virtue;

I enjoyed seeing works I have known from History of Art classes at school and even the ceilings are magnifcent.

The funeral of the Italian footballer who died last week was being held in Florence at the Basilica de Santa Croce on Thursday and we saw people walking home afterwards. There were also demonstrations following the murder of a Senegalese man at his market stall on Monday.

The sun had come out and before we returned to our hotel, we enjoyed a gelato. Growing up in Scotland, many towns had an Italian gelateria selling a product far superior to the Walls and Lyons Maid sold in regular shops. Some Scots-Italians’ ancestors arrived in Scotland in the late 19th century having escaped famine and poverty in their homeland. Today, many remain in the catering industry.

All too soon our brief stay was at an end but we will return as there is so much more to see.