My travel agent's arrangements for Florence included a city tour. It was run by Caf Tours and Travel which appears to be connected with Gray Line. This is an overview tour, which heads towards Piazzale Michelangelo with an excellent view of the city before returning to the old city centre for a walking tour to the outside of Duomo for an overview of that area and concluding with a tour of the Bargello Museum. This latter is a Monday only; other days of the week go to the Galleria dell’Accademia which contains the original statue of David.
Fortunately the starting point for these tours was only a few blocks from the hotel, opposite the train station, so just a few minutes was all the time needed to reach the bus stop. This area was quite congested, as many bus tours operate from the same area, and leave about the same time. Finding the right bus was an interesting exercise.
These streets were obviously not designed for bus and car traffic! This is heading towards the Roman walls, probably Via Serragli.
Looking from inside the Roman walls through the Porta Romana to Piazzale di Porta Romanan.
In the Piazzale outside the city gate is this interesting sculpture. No details available of the artist.
Then the bus took us towards the Piazzale Michelangelo, passing some of the most exclusive/expensive housing in Florence. I suspect much of the reason is that these are stand alone homes, as opposed to the apartments which most Italians live in. Notice this street is much greener than most others I saw in Florence.
Italy In July