Florence - Uffizi

 Cinque Terre to Florence by regional train, via changes in La Spezia and Pisa.

The hotel is right by Piazza Pitti on the other side of the river Arno. We checked in, this is the view from the window.

We walked into  over the Ponte Vecchio to the center of the city around the Duomo. 

On way back find cool secret bar down an alley. 

The neighbourhood near the hotel is called Santo Spirito has lots of restaurants buy very busy, hard to get in without reservation, but we finally found a place for dinner. A Florence specialty is a huge T-bone steak. Didn't try it but saw lots of people doing so.

Morning of first full day in Florence we had booking for Uffizi museum. Ground floor was contemporary exhibition of political magazines from the early 1900's. Second floor had two wings of classical statues. Some were Roman copies of Greek statues, dating to about 100AD, others had only pieces of original Roman statue, the rest added to in the 1400s.

Off the main wings were side rooms of paintings: Medieaval in early 1200's and early Renaisance in 1400's

Also saw famous paintings of masters like Bottecelli

as well as Leonardo da Vinci and Michaelangelo.

There was also an exhibition of the notes and drawings of someone who had come to research Florence a few hundred years later. Upon exiting the Ufizzi museum you end up in Plazza Vechio, the old city hall  and we went into the courtyard. 

Nearby there was a monastery, Badia Florentina, with a central courtyard, and a church where I saw monks in white robes.

We walked to the Duomo, and since the lineup to get into the basilica was not that long, we went inside.

Went back to the hotel, had dinner at a nice little restaurant, Trattoria Bobli, a little ways up the road.