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Sunday, September 30, 2007

Florence - Day 4

The dreaded lurgy lingers on - it means that I'm very tired but since I have planned to go to Arezzo I will.

I skype with Paalo who still hasn't got his bag - good thing is that now we can talk since he's bought a mic. Other items on the shopping list have been abandoned as price wise there's very little difference to what we can get in oz.

To go to Arezzo I have to go to Firenze Campo de Marte (which means Mars Camp) according to the Trenitalia site.

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Even on Sunday the street market is on.

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Ahh, lovely empty streets.

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I decide to catch a taxi from the station rather than battle the trains. The process proves to be a little more expensive than I imagined - €15 for 5 minutes. When I hand over €20 there's that pause when he realises that I'm not getting out and am waiting for my change. Unbelievable. Grudgingly I'm given the change.

He can't complain as there's a lot of people waiting for taxis at this station.

Lesson learnt - that's that last taxi I'm catching in Florence. We certainly were spoiled in Turin.

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While waiting for the train I check out the departures board and find out that there were a lot of other trains heading to Arezzo and I could have caught them at Santa Maria Novella. Doh!

Arezzo proves to be a welcome respite from the tourist filled streets of Florence. I walk through the near empty streets, disturbed only by the church bells and snippets of Italian conversation.

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I take the long way to my destination, happily absorbing the atmosphere with a break for a macchiato on the way.

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There's a real charm to the layout and as I reach the high point, Piazza Grande appears before me - most aptly named indeed.

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The camera show is being held under those arches

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and as all camera shows it seems to be frequented by men who have the need to dangle their cameras with the biggest lens they have, around their necks. I should have brought my 500mm lens, that would have showed them!

There are many cameras to drool over but no real bargains - plus just a bit to much cigarette smoke to have me seriously consider buying a camera. I did manage to find a small tripod that should hopefully do the trick - to take the photos in the apartment I'm having to up the iso since I have to hand hold so they are more grainy than I'd like.

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I'd never seen the Ferrari Nikon - I have no idea how much it was but it probably takes photos way quicker than the rest ;)

I should explain what some of these building are on the Piazza Grande

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On the left is the Palazzo del Tribunale and right is Fraternita dei Laici

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the porticos where the camera show was held are part of the Palazzo delle Logge

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This sits to the left of the Palazzo del Tribunale and it is the Pieve di Santa Maria.

The piazza has an irregular shape and unusually it's built on a slope to follow the natural contour of the hill. You can see the slope a little better on this photo.

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This is the Lappoli Tower

and this is the Cofani Tower

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After the show I continued by exploration of the city, basically just following roads and seeing where they took me

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The wonderful smells coming out of the restaurant certainly had me licking my lips

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it is located near to the Basilica di San Francesco di Arezzo

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Started in 1920, the facade was never finished.

Nearby is a patchwork of a church, the Chiesa di Badia

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It was founded in the 14th century but redesigned in the 16th.

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By this stage I was feeling a little depleted by the warm weather and when I spied a gelateria near the church, I looked a bit like this

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not that I am a red-headed boy or anything

so off I went and I was soon happily tucking into my cup of pistachio gelato

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Once finished it was back to my wanderings about town

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there's a few of these restaurants that set up around the churches

Eventually it was time to head back "home", I couldn't really risk staying out in the sun for much longer and I didn't want to push it too much since I still wasn't feeling the best.

Time to head back to the station.

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where I caught a rather lurid green regional train back into Florence SMN - no Mars Camp for me!

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For more photos check out the Flickr set: Arezzo