Florence!!!

 We’ve had the week here in Florence and have loved it. We could easily stay another week or two. In 6 days we walked 55km, which is impressive because we didn’t arrive until 8pm on the first day.

This was the view out our hotel room the night we arrived

Just around the corner there was a live band busking where a market is during the day - it was a lovely welcome

“Florence For Peace, Two Peoples, Two States in the Middle East”

(Sign on the municiple building)

Piazza della Signoria - with lots of statues to enjoy

Apparently it is “school trip to Florence season”. We saw some primary school aged kids (in either bright hats or high-vis vests) and many many high school groups. It was fun seeing their reactions of the sights of Florence.

The Duomo

Our favourite gelato shop was Vendhi - lots of long lines, but worth the wait (even the locals eat here according to our taxi driver who recommended it to us)

The sun setting on the Arno, with the Ponte Vecchio in the distance.

Stephen took this beautiful photo as the sun was setting on the Arno one night.

I did a painting class one morning - at the local library!!!

Apparently you can buy your dream duck in Florence

We visited the Lego store…and didn’t buy anything (but it was fun to go inside)

I splurged and bought myself a leather jacket

We ate quite a number of meals at this Osteria and really loved it. Great food, quiet location, exceedingly kind staff, lots of Italian people & not too expensive. Perfecto.

The Florentine steak was delicious

Steve had the lamb chops and they were delicious too

Sometimes your PTSD throws you a curve ball and it’s a day in two sets of noise cancelling headphones in the hotel room doing everything you can to calm your nervous system down. Thankfully Steve is a great companion on these days, even if they are super quiet.

Our breakfast each morning ❤

The Palazzo Vecchio - one of the buildings in Florence that dominates the skyline. It was the offices of the Medici family, and then the government offices (still in operation).

One morning over breakfast I sketched the Palazzo Vecchio, which was a lot of fun

The Galileo Museum was mind blowing - so much on the history and evolution of science

This is Galileo’s middle finger - he is literally giving the finger to the church even after he has died

The view out our hotel room window. It was wonderful to just watch the city walk by.

This photo doesn’t do it justice. Our room at the Relais Calvalcanti Guest House was perfect. They were so welcoming, the location was wonderful and the room was just the right size for the three of us

There is a lot of great street art in Florence

The bottom floor of the Palazzo Vecchio is magnificent

Although the statues were quite dominating - reminding people coming to do business with the Medici family to not screw them over, or there would be swift and severe consequences

Carved into marble was a monument to remember the people who died from Covid. They will not be forgotten

The Duomo Museum had a statue by Michelangelo. This was meant to adorn his tomb when he died, however he never finished it. Michelangelo smashed the statue, when he discovered flaws in the marble (it was restored after he died). The statue is named The Deposition and is of Nicodemus, Mary Magdalene and Mary Mother of Jesus, bringing Jesus’ body down from the cross. Michelangelo gave Nicodemus his own face, making it a self portrait.

In 1564 the Medici family constructed a private walkway from the Palazzo Vecchio to the Pitti Palace (The Vasari Corridor). Over the top of other buildings, over the Arno River, so that they could walk from work to home (almost 1km) without having to come into contact with regular people. You can read more about it here http://www.museumsinflorence.com/musei/corridoio_vasariano.html

We had a lot of fun playing Yellow Car in Florence

We are now moving on to Pienza, a small Tuscan hill town, and we are looking forward to not having to walk so far each day! Skye is loving all the new smells.

Back in London

 

We are back in London. Knowing that the next leg of our trip would be fairly demanding, we had a couple of quiet days. We caught up with friends Donna & Paul (apologies I forgot to take a photo), Grant & Martin, and Pi. We visited the Art of the Brick exhibition (which was mind blowing in how they had used lego) and spent a lot of time with Skye in Hyde Park (with her getting her zoomies out of her system) and taking Skye to the Travel Vet at Heathrow, where they finalised her paperwork to travel to Italy and started her paperwork to return back to Australia. 

We’ve been staying at the Victory Services Club in Hyde Park - it’s been wonderful.

Catching up with Pi was wonderful.

Getting to see the Art of the Brick with Grant and Martin

Skye loves the horses in Hyde Park, but here they are casually walking down the street outside Paul’s cafe where we were having breakfast.

 

We went to a sushi train (in Selfridges) which was great, but no where near as nice as the Cheese Train!

The travel vet were so helpful

Off to Italy!!!!

Skye loves to fly

Easter on Iona

We spent Easter on the Island of Iona at the 13th century Abbey, in the Iona Community taking part in their Holy Week Pilgrimage program. It wasn’t what we were expecting, but we are really glad we came just to meet the amazing other people who had travelled from all around the world to be in the Iona Community for the week.

To get to Iona we took three trains, two ferries and a bus. Here we are waiting in the freezing cold wind for the bus. It was so windy it made Skye’s ears flap wildly in the wind. We were very glad to get on the warm heated bus. The bus driver was so lovely, at the end of the bus trip we had a 90min wait, and he went and got his own dog so that Skye had someone to play with! 

The cloisters at the Iona Abbey.

The cloisters

Banners from previous programs in the refectory where we had all our meals. 

On Good Friday we had a Stations of the Cross walk with the local community. This amazing lady is walking the length of Gaza to call for a ceasefire & she’s doing it with the aid of her off road walker. I was lucky enough to spend some time talking with her, and she was very excited to hear we were from Canberra, because she had a lovely Easter there a number of years before.

Stations of the Cross

Easter Sunday Sunrise over Iona Abbey

I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to preside over communion in the Abbey for Easter Sunday. I don’t think I’ll be presiding in a 13th century Abbey again in my life. 

It was standing room only, with over 400 people coming for the Easter Sunday Communion Service, including a group of pilgrims who walked 100miles carrying a cross and a large number of people from a cruise ship who moored so that their passengers could come to Iona for the communion service.

 

I’m very grateful that the Iona Community Leaders gave me the opportunity to preside over communion on Easter Sunday (with two co-presiders from the Church of Scotland and the Methodist Church) to help me celebrate the 25th anniversary of my ordination. Being able to do that in a 13th century abbey, with standing room only, in such a beautiful location, is something I’ll cherish forever. (It was FREEZING cold in the Abbey, so I kept on my hat!!!)

The food in the Iona community is amazing - one night we had profiteroles for “pudding”. But even though the food was delicious, our bodies really struggled with the high amounts of lentils, chickpeas and other pulses (it was all vegetarian) which caused some digestive issues for the time that we were there. 

Sunset behind St Martin’s Cross

There were many wonderful people on the program including John from Boston - here we are in the Nunnery ruins.

St Martin’s Cross

Skye loved being on the island. She got to run around in the morning and the evening, getting the zoomies and sniffing everything in sight. 

The Nunnery ruins. They date to the 13th century, but sadly haven’t been rebuilt in the same way that the Abbey has. 

Peace Sculpture

It was fun going on transport like this car ferry - something we don’t normally get to do.

The train from Oban to Glasgow had a trolley that came around with drinks and snacks :) 

The very first people that we met on our way from Glasgow to Iona were Ian and Sharon, and we were really lucky to travel with them back to Glasgow, so they were also the last people we saw from the community as well! The highlight of our time on Iona was definitely the people that we met. 

After a week of chickpeas, beans, lentil and a lot of bread, it was wonderful to have a steak in Glasgow.