We all met up at around 8.15 to drive to Certaldo station to then catch the train to Florence.
We met a New Zealand couple on the train, the husband of which turned out to be the second cousin of the boss of one of the girls in the group!
Once we reached Florence we went to meet our tour guide who turned out to be a real old fashioned matron kind of woman - imagine the two fat ladies rolled into one...
She was quite a character, forever telling us to keep up, speaking very loudly in a posh voice while telling other groups to be quiet and moaning at us for visiting the Uffitzi gallery on a Tuesday, as it was its busiest day! However, she did know her stuff and some of the tour was very interesting even if a little politically incorrect.
One of the girls managed to 'escape' halfway through the tour, but the rest of us soldiered on. Eventually the guide left and rather than see the rest of the gallery we headed straight for a restaurant where I had a ribbolata (Tuscan vegetable soup) and pasta with porcini for lunch. This was followed by a fabulous gelato before heading back to the train station via Avis car rental so I could be added as a driver to the hire car.
Regards,
Gary Nicklin
Please excuse the short message - it was sent from a Blackberry handheld.
