France/Italy roadtrip – Florence day 2 | alison richards

I was waiting for the bus into Florence at 6:50am. The plan for today was to wander along the Arno near Ponte Vecchio and see the lovely bridge without the hordes of people on it, then I had booked an early morning ticket for the Uffizi Gallery. The gallery opened at 8:15, which more than suited me! But first, the bridge... it was so much nicer in the early morning with the people going to work and those early morning joggers hurrying past me. I could take my time and really appreciate the architecture and beauty of the city. I wandered across the empty bridge, noticing that all the stores were jewellery shops - a details that I hadn't picked up on yesterday when I could barely move across it. I even saw a council worker with bolt cutters cutting off padlocks left on the bridge by silly tourists...

The city worker cutting off padlock – please, people, stop doing this!

The jewellery stores along the Ponte Vecchio

How some of these bits tacked on manage to stay there is beyond me!

I left the river and went to the Uffizi but it was a bit early so I went to look around the Piazza della Signoria, where they have a large undercover area sheltering a courtyard full of sculptures. There were some amazing ones in there too - all free to wander around - as well as a copy of the David statue!

It was 7:45 when I went to the Uffizi to try work out what was what. It was a complicated system. I had bought tickets online and been supplied with an electronic ticket, but I then needed to go to a ticket booth to get a real ticket.... which I only found out when I was trying to go into the Uffizi. I had already been queuing to go in, now I needed to go and queue again to get my ticket in order to queue again to go inside! Very confusing system. I finally managed to enter the gallery and set about having a look around. Now, I don't usually take photos of paintings, but there was just some stunners that I have always loved in that gallery so I have quite a few photos...

The ceilings in the Uffizi were pretty amazing

The Duke and Duchess of Urbino – Piero Della Francesca

The Temperance by Piero del Pollaiolo. This was in a group of four other paintings which were truly beautiful. People just kept moving around past them but I stood looking at them for ages.

Judith with the Head of Holofernes – Botticelli. This was actually quite a small painting!

Primavera – Botticelli. This is one of my favourites by Botticelli. I love the detail in the painting

The Birth of Venus – Botticelli. I didn’t stay here long, too many people.

One of the closed-off galleries in the Uffizi.

I don’t know who this was by but I was struck by the beautiful linework

I left the Uffizi at 11:30am. It's definitely nowhere near the size of the Louvre in Paris and I was pretty sure I'd seen all of the rooms. My next visit was the Orsanmichele, a very strange church that had been built as a market and grain storage. It still retains some of its original functional features but is now very much so a church. It was really gloomy inside so only one of my photos came out acceptably...

I was starting to get peckish, but I kept going until I spotted a place off the beaten track - I was in a far too touristy area! I wandered to the other side of the Arno river, noting that a lot of the street art was appropriating the art that I had just seen in the Uffizi. I finally saw a restaurant that took my fancy - a vegetarian restaurant with an interesting menu. It was really nice inside. I took a table, then looked over at the other person sitting in the restaurant... another female solo traveller. We got to talking and ended up having lunch together. Solo travelling can bring you some really interesting moments like that!

An appropriation of Duke and Duchess of Urbino

This is a Pasquali electric car. They are built in Florence, have three wheels, and are so small that you don’t actually need a driving licence to operate one. There are not too many of these in existence either!

Inside L’OV Osteria Vegetariana, where I had lunch. How nice is it?!

Santa Maria Novella, opposite the bus stop back to the campsite.

I got back to the campsite a bit before 5, and started getting sorted to leave tomorrow, when I was off to explore the Tuscan countryside!

Campsite: Camping Village Internazionale Firenze

Rating: 7. Handy campsite for Florence, the bus makes going into town really easy. The site is very hilly though so if you have a camper and are parked at the back, be prepared to walk. Some road noise. Bathroom facilities were ok, could do with a bit of a renovation, especially the showers. Not cheap, but worth the easy connection to Florence.