Firenze

I recently had the opportunity to meet Jane and Woody (left) and Wendy and Mike (right) in Rome, where we stayed one night before setting out for Florence by train. We had rented an apartment that held us comfortably just a few blocks from the Duomo, with its beautiful baptistry and Bruneleschi's Dome. Among other things, we visited the Duomo, the church of Sta. Maria Novella (wonderful paintings), and Palazzo del Bargello, which held a treasure trove of sculptures. As you can see above, the sculpture tried to copy the poses of my friends for outdoor sculptures, which were the only ones that one could take pictures of. Inside there was a collection of absolutely wonderful sculptures.

Of course no visit to Firenze would be complete without a visit to the Palazzo Della Uffizi, and Mike had thought ahead and bought us tickets for entry when it opened on Monday morning. Of course when we got up early and walked there, they were closed for a strike, and it made everyone sad.

We were able to go in three days later, and of course saw some spectacular art.

We continued out walk over the river to the Boboli Palace, and walked around the neighborhood a bit before taking a tour bus which showed us the other neighborhoods of Firenze, including giving me a spectacular view of the Ponte Vecchio, the only bridge that was not destroyed in the Second World War, under direct orders from Hitler, because he apparently liked the looks of it. That of course did not mean that the bombers could not take out the roads on either side of the bridge, making it unusable. Smart.
Whoops, sorry, This picture may be upside down. Anyway, we were able to make it across the bridge and back without buying any gold at all the jewelry shops that line the bridge.

In the evening, after enjoying as well as we could the northern Italian cuisine (yeah, I know, it is good for gourmets, but I have gotten used to and love Sicilian food much more) we ended up staring into the bottom of empty wine bottles. You can see, there is just a little chiani left in the bottom of this one.