Via degli Dei 7: Finally into Florence

Our day started in the countryside, with bees, butterflies, flowers, and great views. We had a snack stop at a cute little church and made our way downhill into Fiesole.

Fiesole has some Roman ruins, some Medici ruins, and a world-class view of Florence in the distance. The Cathedral still looked a long way away, but we were clearly edging closer.

The walk down from Fiesole was lovely. Small jasmine-scented lanes winding between Medici villas. It didn’t take much to imagine some Medici prince clopping up the paths on horseback 500 years ago.

Then we were entering Florence following a small river towards the centre as things got increasingly busy. We started getting views of the Cathedral, closer and closer. Then we hit the unmistakable crowds of tourists filling the streets to capacity and more. That was a little confronting after the last peaceful weeks.

And, finally, we were standing in front of the Cathedral.

All up we covered 131km, at an average speed of 12mins 30s per km. We climbed 4089m up and something like the same down – which is a fair bit, and certainly earned us a celebration beer.

And if finishing in Florence was not exciting enough – we met up with our friends for dinner.

After dinner we strolled around Florence in the balmy evening moving along the river and then from busker to busker through the town back to the Cathedral. It was quite magical.