Oh my goodness, but the time gets away from me.  We’ve been all over the city exploring and by the time we get home, I’m just too tired to write.

From all the complaining about riding the buses, you’d think that would be the last thing we would want to do, but, we do feel that the Hop On Hop Off bus is the best way to get to know the whole of the city so that’s what we did.  It was the best choice we made.  The first line we took, got us to the top of a hill high above the city, at Michaelangelo viewpoint for a spectacular view that we wouldn’t have even known existed except for this tour.  We could see as far west as the city extended, taking in many bridges, the Duomo, and many church spires and towers.  The calm waters of the Arno River flowed far below and the gently rolling hillsides were pedestals for the mansions that sat upon them with their beautiful manicured lawns flowing downward to the water. The aspen trees stood as sentinels watching over everything beneath them, a true picture of the Tuscan countryside.

It was an amazing time on the hill.

We stopped and had a hot dog while up there and it was the best I’ve ever eaten.  I’m not sure why, because it was just a hot dog, but it was well cooked and in a hot fresh bun and eating it while witnessing the view below must have made it tastier.

Riding back down the winding road gave us many more views of villas tucked deep into the trees, barely visible but for a few quick glimpses.The city offered us opportunities to take photos of long, narrow, streets, as well as beautiful architectural buildings, churches, and castles. I can’t get enough.

One thing I am amazed by is how people park their cars here.  It’s an art form for sure. They park inches apart at their fenders and I still can’t figure out how they can possibly get out when they want to.  It seems like an engineering problem to me. But watching them drive is an art form also and I’ve yet to see an accident.  Horns must have something to do with that!

How can the black car possibly get out?

We arrived home for a quick break before heading out again to take the next bus line which took us north of the city and once again, into the countryside, where we stopped at a small town named Fiesole (pr. Feesolay). We hopped off and wandered for fifteen minutes before riding back down to Florence. It was dusk by the time we got down and it was nice to see the city coming into its nightlife. More stores and shops are opened in the evening when it is cooler and people crowd the streets, stopping for drinks and snacks on their way home from work. We stopped at a blockade on the road and our bus driver hopped out of the bus (not supposed to be a hop off bus for her!) and ran across the street to talk to two police officers.  Now what? Again with the bus thing? Within moments, cars behind us started honking at us and finally the driver came back and after one passenger inquired what was going on, she told us there was a football game on later that night and the roads were being blocked off so we had to go around.  Not an easy job, I’m sure since all the roads don’t allow access to large buses. We made many turns and finally got back to where we started.

We were tired when we got home so we were happy that we had leftovers in the fridge for supper. It was a good day and I fell asleep with the many visions of the day in my head.