December 11, 2014 
As Sarah & i were about to leave the room to try our first breakfast, we suddenly heard a faint sound of bells. We quickly rushed to the window and opened the inner windows and the outer shutters, and the sound was immense! I wanted to record the sound but the video below doesn’t do it justice.
The Breakfast…
Breakfast, i can only describe as an amazing taste sensation. The chef must have only had one knife though, as everything was sliced about an inch thick! What seemed like a block of cheese to us, was a slice to them. lol, but i didn’t want to seem rude and waste any! 🙂
The search for the Palace…
After filling up with breakfast, we started out on our primary objective for the day…to find the Palazzo Medici Riccardi where my photos will be exhibited in a few days time.
Once out on the main street, i stood facing north (towards the Cathedral) and opened the Blindsquare app on my iPhone. I had save 2 locations to the favourites – the hotel and the palace, so they would b read out instantly and hopefully tell me (if the cellular network is good) where the locations are using a clock face description. It said “Palazzo Medici Riccardi is at 11’o clock at 350 yards”. Right let’s go! After passing the Florence Cathedral it was just a straight road until the Palace was on our left. Now to find the entrance which was another mammoth task for us …
We started walking around the outside of the whole building finding everything including a cash machine (very useful, clothes store & even a McDonalds (the poshest one we’ve ever seen). Finally we found it but we couldn’t see any sign of the Art Senses posters anywhere. We went inside anyway to have a look around where we’d maybe stumble across a tiny room being set up for the exhibition.
Inside the Palace…
As we were walking around, we both kept saying “I think we’re in the wrong building, there is no way the exhibition will be in here somewhere. But this place is amazing so we’ll keep looking”.
⇧ We totally need to get door frames like these!! 🙂 ⇧
Then a few minutes later i found a ceiling design for our home too!! lol.
As we entered the next couple of rooms, Sarah was oooing quite a lot, and now as i’m looking back over the photos to see what i was actually looking at, i should’ve known there were shoes!
After being amazed for a while longer, we decided to double check outside to see if this really was the Palazzo Medici Riccardi….It was!
I said “There is no way my photos are being exhibited in there, just no way”.
Then as we turned to find our way back to the hotel, we suddenly realised there was a marathon going on!!
Yes a marathon, actually the 31st annual “Florence Marathon (Maratona di Firenze)”. Now the streets were not only packed, but worse still for us, blocked off so we couldn’t get back the way we came.
After a few hours of getting lost, trying different coffee shops and of course the clothes and shoe shops, we found ourselves by the river. Sarah said “oh, this is the river!!” I said “But isn’t the river south, way past the hotel in the other direction?”
We both realised we had no idea which way to go and we were both really tired from dodging people and with all of the noise, so we just decided to pick a street and walk up it. Then to our complete surprise as we were getting really fed up, Sarah said “That’s the sign to our hotel”, “No way, i had no idea we were here, now let’s get a takeaway coffee from our new local and rest for a while”.
After an eventful and tiring day, we decided to try heading east but only down one street as it’s dark now and we really don’t want to get lost again. The hanging street lights were beautiful and we found lots of clothes shops and a nice little sandwich/coffee bar to relax in for a while.
As we returned to the hotel we booked a “Tuscany in a day” tour for the morning. We knew it was a lot in one day but it will be ideal for us. Now we were getting even more excited. I could be stood next to the leaning tower of Pisa!! No way!! 🙂
Please join us on day 3 to see how we got on!!
iChristian 
Steve, just love the bells. Florence is my absolute favorite city EVER! How wonderful for you. Be sure Sarah takes a photo of you next to the statue of David outside the Uffizi. And get to Boboli Gardens if you can. Can’t wait to hear all about your show! All blessings to you both!
Hi Susan!! Thanks for this lovely comment. Yes Florence is simply breath taking and we’re loving exploring.
I’ll finally get to the exhibition on Day 5, i know it’s taking time, but we did so much in the few days before, it’s taking a while to get there!! 🙂
Thanks so much for taking time to read and comment, it means so much! 🙂
Wow! Stunning, amazing place and amazing photographs these Steve 🙂
Beautiful shots from a beautiful journey.
Awww thanks so much, and thanks for joining us! 🙂
The palace is magnificent.
Yeah it was just amazing, my photos don’t really do it justice, and i’m so thankful for having this opportunity to show you some glimpses of my amazing time.
These photos are amazing. I know you’re having a marvelous time. What a beautiful palace and surrounding architecture. I enjoyed all the photos and your tour. God bless and be careful.