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Busy day in Florence today, we walked down to the Duomo, saw the tower, walked the markets, ate amazing fresh mozzarella, tomato and basil sandwiches, rented a much bigger scooter than we had in san tropez- it is 125ccs, and has a nice seat for longer journeys, rode along the river, saw the Vecchio bridge, went to a museum to see Michaelangelo's David, and watched the sunset from Piazza de Michaelangelo. Overall, it was a great, busy, and scenic day!
Scooting around Florence is a completely different story than scooting around the riviera. For one, the city has busy traffic and mostly one-way streets and alleys(frustrating!) Secondly, scooters don't follow lane assignments, and if you don't weave in and out between cars, you get honked at for going too slow!!!!
We ended up getting stopped by a cop in the San Lorenzo market (where it was pedestrians only), and she said we had to push the scooter instead of riding it. I don't think there's ever been a time in our life we've felt cooler. I gotta tell you, pushing the scooter 2 blocks to our hotel... move over "the Fonz". The owner of the hotel we're staying at was standing in the street and chuckling at us... Good times. At least we didn't get yelled at today, the cop only TOLD us to push the scooter.
Our new scooter scoots a lot faster! On our 50cc in San Tropez, we maxed out at 35km/hr uphill, and 50km/hr downhill on steep slope with our backpacks! Imagine what our 125cc can do...
Michaelangelo's David really is as cool as they say, it is carved out of marble, and way bigger and much more detailed than either of us had anticipated. Each upper back muscle is emphasized based on how he is holding the sling and standing. This coming from non-museum lovers, is saying something! Deidre was even MORE excited when we found the antique musical instrument portion of the museum which housed a number of violins, violas and cellos made by the one, the only Antonio Stradivari himself! It is humbling being within a foot of a multi-million dollar instrument. Yes, of course we thought of swiping it for our private collection, but alas, it is on weight sensors, laser sensors, crystal sensors, etc, you get the idea.
The sunset was stunning from the piazza of Michaelangelo. Our tour book said that all the scenic photographs of Florence you see in magazines and on postcards come from that piazza.
It seems that we are the target of angry and vocal Italians, as it was Deidre's turn to get yelled at today, but it was for showing her shoulders (in a tank top) OUTSIDE, next to the basilica. We weren't even going in! We thought it was kind of interesting how people in the riviera were liberal and very nice, and now people in Italy who are extremely prudish are so crabby... Correlation implying causation?
Tomorrow, we're off to the Chianti countryside on our fast scoot-scoot!
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