|
|
Article: ITALY ON AND OFF THE TOURIST TRACK // Conquering the crowds in Florence
- Article from:
- Chicago Sun-Times
- Article date:
- July 7, 1991
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright (null) Chicago Sun-Times. (Hide copyright information)
|
FLORENCE It was tourist high noon in Florence, and we'd let a
giggling pack of French schoolkids get the drop on us.
The Gallic adolescents galloped past, all elbows and pimples,
followed closely by a camera-clutching Japanese phalanx. My wife,
Marcia, and I had been outflanked by sheer weight of tour-group
numbers at the turnstile leading to the Medici Chapels of San Lorenzo
church, where Michelangelo's famous ducal tombs are the main magnet.
On our third full-throttle sightseeing day in what the American
Express Pocket Guide to Florence and Tuscany calls "the most densely
packed urban treasure house in Europe," we were starting to go wobbly
at the knees and mushy in the brain. By rapid ...