Busy busy BUSY but fun fun FUN days…As I announced in my previous post, I’m spending all my free time these days with some close friends from the UK who have come to pay us a quick visit…

On Wednesday we drove up to Fiesole, a pretty hill town with splendid views of Florence. Not to be missed: Fiesole’s Roman theatre…

Yesterday was totally exhausting. Mamma mia!!! We (minus Stefano, who was at work) walked all over the centre of Florence, from Piazza San Marco to the Duomo (= the cathedral in Florence), then–cutting through tiny side streets in order to avoid the, uhm, madding crowd–down to Piazza della Signoria and the Ponte Vecchio…

After admiring the Arno River from the Ponte Vecchio, we walked to and over the next bridge, Ponte alle Grazie, to get some good shots of Florence’s most famous bridge (see above). From there we visited the church of Santa Croce. AND, of course!, Piazza Santa Croce (=the square in front of the church), which is one of my favorite places on Earth! But I have written about Santa Croce before, so I’ll try not to repeat myself. 🙂 After a quick stop at Vivoli’s for some gelato (=ice cream), we headed back home…and collapsed!

Here are a few random photos, chosen among the ones I took yesterday. As I mentioned, the first is a shot of the Ponte Vecchio taken from the Ponte alle Grazie.

Then we have a side view of the Fountain of Neptune, located in Piazza della Signoria. If you look at it closely, you will catch a glimpse, in the distance, of the very top of the famous dome of the cathedral in Florence.

Speaking of Piazza della Signoria…When we first stepped into the square, emerging into blinding brightness from one of the dark, narrow side streets, we noticed that it was quite crowded…including quite a number of policemen and secret service-looking guys…

I asked a policeman what was going on…He told me that the President of the Italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, was inside the Palazzo Vecchio (= the town hall of Florence, among other things) and was about to come out. Wow!

So we stayed in the square long enough to get a photo of President Napolitano, here shown walking and chatting with, on the left, Rosy Bindi (President of the Italian Democratic Party and Vice President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies) and, on the right, a rather worried-looking Matteo Renzi, Mayor of Florence…

Photo number 4 shows Benvenuto Cellini’s Perseus, holding the severed head of Medusa…This is one of the many statues located inside the Loggia dei Lanzi, = a 14th century “arched” open building on a corner of the Piazza della Signoria.

This morning, while Stefano and I went to work, our friends headed off to the stunning Val d’Orcia region, which is more or less south of the city of Siena. Stefano and I are going to join up with them tomorrow.

It should be great fun…I just hope that this glorious, not-too-hot weather holds up and that my photos of typical Tuscan landscapes, with rolling hills and cypresses and whatnot, will turn out well!!!