Hi friends and welcome to Day 10 of this monumental, inconceivable and definitely memorable blind sightseers tour….!

Our plan today was to head East, then travel anti-clockwise until we reached our favourite place (South, by the river Arno) to try and take photos of things we may have missed so far, or from angles different from the norm. Right let’s Go!

East…

Wow, another bell tower, how did i miss this?! 

North…

Heading North of our hotel, we stopped once again to gaze upon the stunning architecture of the Florence Cathedral and the Palazzo Medici Ricardi…

West…

As we were heading west, i found another statue, but thought i’d take it from a random angle! 🙂

Sarah found a shop with sunflowers (her favourite flowers)…

South…

Gold anyone!! 😀 

Hi friends and welcome to Day 9 of this monumental, inconceivable and definitely memorable blind sightseers tour….!

Well i’m not actually in Italy as i write this, i’m at home on my iMac! But Sarah kept on catching me opening the maps app and taking a screenshot of our location!

Today we thought we’d head south towards the river, then curl round and end up North of the hotel at the Palazzo Medici Riccardi to see if last night really was a dream.

The Vasari Corridor….

Sarah & i really liked the “Vasari Corridor”, but now Sarah won’t let me through as i’m a commoner, lol. Eventually i managed to negotiate a deal, but it meant looking round more shops! 🙂

Sarah looking fluent in Florin! (Italian gold coin)  

Sarah at Tiffany’s! 😲

After a while we decided to rest a little and get refreshed ready for more exciting touring. Mmmmmm coffee and cake! ☕ 🍰 

Wow, now that was fantastic! Anyway better get back to it! 🙂 

It wasn’t long before Sarah found another friend, in the form of a statue. 

As we walked past the amazing Florence Cathedral, Sarah noticed and got excited that there was now a Christmas tree and a life size nativity scene. 🎄  

After being wowed, we took lots of photos to try and get one good enough to possibly make Christmas cards for loved ones.😀 

Now on to the Palazzo Medici Riccardi…

We arrived at the palace (left in photo above) and found the exhibition, yay i didn’t dream it! 😀 

As the majority of the artwork displayed was created by blind & partially sighted people, it was really tactile so we got to touch the creations. I’m so used to going to museums etc and not being able to see or touch the art. Thanks artists! 

As i mentioned yesterday i was 1 of 3 artists (still not used to being called that) from the UK who exhibited, so i’d like to introduce to you…Ann and her paintings…

And Christina’s photos…

After a long walk around looking and touching the art, we went out of the back exit where i found an archway, and a huge ring that we kept finding on the outside of buildings, i think to chain the horses…Or the peasants. 😕

We’d had another fantastic day in Florence, and if you remembered, i’d topped the evening off with an amazing cherry topped cake…Well this evening it got better still…..

Bistecca alla fiorentina…..😲🥩

Just when you thought the evening couldn’t get any better…Sarah & i shared the amazing Florentine steak! We had been told by Grace from our favourite restaurant in the world (Sicily Restaurant) that we couldn’t leave without trying one. Wow, she was right. It was truly magnificent and everything we’d hoped for, although i think Sarah got arm ache from sawing the never ending extra thick meat!! 🙂

We’ve had such a memorable and unbelievable time in Italy, and as this was Thursday, we still had a full day Friday, before we headed home on Saturday. 😀

Hope you’ve enjoyed the adventure today…Let me know your favourite part?! 🤔 We’ll meet tomorrow…Same time…Same place for another adventure! 😀 

To be continued…

 ⬅ Previous Day 🇮🇹 Next Day ➡

🏝 Join us:

• Tuscany Tour
• Transatlantic Sunset Cruise
• Matlock Bath
• Mayan Treasures Cruise
• Classical Greece Cruise
• Treasures of the Mediterranean Cruise
• Seven Isles Cruise
• Barbados – Southern Palms #1
• Tough Mudder 5K
• Tropical Delights Cruise
• Barbados – Southern Palms #2
• Aegean Shores Cruise
• Ancient Kingdoms Cruise
• Ultra Step Challenge

Start tour from beginning

Hi friends and welcome to Day 8 of this monumental, inconceivable and definitely memorable blind sightseers tour….! 

It was now Wednesday and it was time for the sun to make way for the rain. The hotel room even had it’s own umbrella with “Brunelleschi” as the logo, i like this hotel! The exhibition didn’t start until 4pm, so we decided to explore (now we knew where we were going after our fantastic walking tour for a couple of hours with our new umbrella! 😀 

It turned out that the streets were much quieter which is great for us, so we could relax a little more too after a couple of hectic days. OOoooo another coffee shop! ☕  

 The Exhibition…..

We left the hotel with posh clothes on and fancy umbrella in hand and headed to the Palazzo Medici Riccardi hoping there actually was an exhibition even though we had still seen no signs at all, not even a hint that there’d be one. 😕

Then…We turned into the main entrance…..

Sarah said “Wow, now this is a lot of people, the posters are up all around us and look great, and it’s in the beautiful, main part of the palace”. I started to feel a little out of my depth all of a sudden…As my nerves crashed over me like “The Great Wave Of Kanagawa” by Hokusai. 

Sarah then found Ann, who has also travelled from England, UK (thats ⅔ of the UK representatives, lol) so i had a chat with her as i’d never met her before, she’s an enormously talented artist and has a few paintings in the exhibition. 

We hadn’t noticed, but the crowd had started making their way to the large area in the centre where the president of the blind union was talking (in Italian) through a PA system. By the time we had arrived we were at the back wondering what was going on, and none of us were able to see anything (even the sighted ones) as we were just too far away. 

Then…..

Costanza, who organised the whole thing (with her husband) cut through the crowd, took my had and led me right to the front next to the president and a few of the other artists.

Then after about 5 minutes, she put the microphone into my hand and said “Speak one word”. 

The place went silent, i could feel there were lots of people around, i had no idea if any of them spoke english. So i  said “ciao a tutti (Hello everyone), i’m Steve Rebus from London”. It seemed to go across well, but i was so terrified i didn’t have a clue what to say next. Constanza gently took the mic and passed it along, aaaghhh i could now relax a little. 😀 

After a few more people spoke we were given a glass of Prosecco and Costanza took me to see what they’d done with my photos. I had only sent the prints and they had mounted, framed and hung them beautifully, i can’t thank them enough, they looked great and very professional!

It wasn’t long before people started crowding round as they viewed each of our works. 

Everyone kept telling me how fantastic the photos were and that i was a “Provider of  inspiration” (now that’s a title, lol. , all i could say is thanks. I was completely overwhelmed by the whole evening. I never knew it was going to be this big, professionally done and not held in a dark attic somewhere! I’m not good at playing the artist game and kept thinking that i better start taking some better photos, lol. 😀 

After a couple of hours walking round the exhibition, i was amazed at the level of talent. I enjoyed the paintings (a lot were tactile too), sculptures and other photography, simply brilliant!

I’ll post more photos tomorrow when we returned to see if we were just dreaming! 😲

Sarah got me to stand next to one of the Art Senses posters while holding the amazingly professional catalogue/book of all the works and artists bio etc. Costanza really worked hard to put everything together, and i thank God that she found Sarah to ask for blind artists from the UK.

Hope you’ve enjoyed the exhibition today…Let me know your favourite part?! 🤔 We’ll meet tomorrow…Same time…Same place for another adventure! 😀 

To be continued…

⬅ Previous Day 🇮🇹 Next Day ➡

🏝 Join us:

• Tuscany Tour
• Transatlantic Sunset Cruise
• Matlock Bath
• Mayan Treasures Cruise
• Classical Greece Cruise
• Treasures of the Mediterranean Cruise
• Seven Isles Cruise
• Barbados – Southern Palms #1
• Tough Mudder 5K
• Tropical Delights Cruise
• Barbados – Southern Palms #2
• Aegean Shores Cruise
• Ancient Kingdoms Cruise
• Ultra Step Challenge

Start tour from beginning

Hi friends and welcome to Day 6 of this monumental, inconceivable and definitely memorable blind sightseers tour….!

The dark cloak of night ensconced us, light had finally escaped the dungeon of darkness but had disappeared..…Sorry, just trying to set the mood for the final destination on our amazing Tuscany in a day tour.

Chiara had been telling us of the year 1348 when the black death had wiped out over ⅔ of the walled medieval town of San Gimignano, the majority of the people who survived the terror had left. Continuing on this theme, and the fact that it was totally dark outside (due to this time of year) set the scene for the omnifarious emotions we were about to experience! 😨

Welcome to San Gimignano…

After leaving the coach and a short walk uphill, the group arrived at the main entrance of the walled town. We then had about 45 minutes free time to explore, then meet back here. Afterr the group dispersed, Sarah & i entered this foreboding place … 

No amount of photos could ever get across the feeling of this dark macabre town! The black windows towering over you from each side with their eyeless glare, the silence and the shadows creeping and following you everywhere, generated a smothering atmosphere that had flavours of Fear, Death, Sorrow for the people of old, Awe and a weird taste of Joy and amazement. You really can only experience San Gimignano by physically being here! I really don’t think it’d feel like this in the daytime. 

As Sarah was checking out the few little shops on the main walkway, i’d stay outside and just stand, soaking up the atmosphere that my words can’t describe. Sarah says “They only sell pottery or Knives”.

As i was stood (see above) it was completely silent. Then all of a sudden i heard heavy footsteps from behind sounding like they were headed straight for me. The hairs on my arms and neck stuck bolt upright, and i expected to see a blade sticking out of the front of my chest as an assassin wearing a monks tunic (from the video game (assassins creed) shot out of the shadows sending me to paradise.

As i turned though it was just a person leaving the church behind me, although i’m still not sure how they managed the booming footstep thing. My imagination really doesn’t help my heart at times like these! 😌

We just had time for a super fast coffee before we met back up with the group having felt we’d been to probably the most special place of the trip. We were so grateful we hadn’t decided to stay in the coach as it was just too dark to risk having accidents, and we hadn’t bought our ultra bright torches yet! 😀 

Wow what a super yet action packed day…It was really hard to keep our eyes open on the coach and listen to the end of the tour…But we didn’t want to miss anything from this very special time. 😀 

Hope you’ve enjoyed the adventure today on the “Tuscany in a day tour”, let me know your fave part of the day?! 🤔 We’ll meet tomorrow…Same time…Same place for another adventure! 😀 

To be continued…