Walking in Europe

Pre-note: Today we wrapped the amazing Via degli Dei 130 km walk from Bologna to Florence over the Apennines (although Strava has it at 157 kms adding distance for a couple variant routes and a detour or two?). Definitely feels like Strava has our correct distance! 🥾😮‍💨

Today was such a rewarding last day, though we were definitely hot and tired by the time we found our little hostel room this afternoon. We’re feeling pretty good about completing this hike as the conditions were challenging in different ways to the Tour de Mont-Blanc (warm midday temps!). This part of Italy is beautiful and it was a great way to see the countryside and experience the very welcoming culture.

We needed to cover about 14km today so packed up our tent this morning and walked into Fiesole, a village overlooking Florence (Firenze) and built around a beautiful church tower and a significant archaeological study area including Roman and Etruscan artifacts, structures, and art works including an amphitheater, and other walls and buildings.

From there we walked down very picturesque and ancient narrow streets, alleyways and along one of the main streets into “downtown” Florence. As we came through the final few blocks the streets became pedestrian access only and then as if out of nowhere the massive Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore just seems to appear! And behind it the huge Duomo. Just incredible. And tourists everywhere! Ali and I were feeling like we’d just walked 130 kms with not much human contact then into thousands in the plaza this afternoon. We fumbled through a couple of selfies and pictures before continuing on a few hundred metres along a narrow alley street to the Palazzo (palace) Vecchio at the Piazza (square) della Signoria and the technical end of the walk. Once again we were just kind of speechless at the buildings and beautiful facades and sculptures literally everywhere.

We are now in our little hostel room enjoying some downtime and planning what sights to see during our four day stay here. So exciting! A few pics from today below, and I’ll post a few more in the next few days.