Buena Serra

We re-read our blogs and realized how many spelling errors there are in them. Please forgive us, the keyboard is a little wacky and we're typing quickly. Grammar can wait when there is Italia to see!

Tonight we took the goodnight tour of Florence. I think these midnight walks are going to be one of our favorite memories. We stroll along and imprint everything in our minds. Everything is almost magical by night. Blake said goodbye to the Duomo. It was a long, sad goodbye. This boy loves his architecture! We've taken almost two hundred pictures already, and I would guess that over half of them are of the Duomo or the Colosseum!!! I seriously have to tell him no more pictures!!!


We started out the day with a our of the Medici tombs. This family was the Bill Gates of The Renaissance. The Chapel of the Prince was shunned for it's "trashy opulence" in the day. Again, no pictures, but just the marble in the tombs was beautiful! Imagine being so rich that you could pay a sculptor to work ten years on ONE ROOM of your tomb, and that sculptor is Michaelangelo. Michealangelo's famous Night and Day sits on one of the tombs.

After the tombs we shopped the market for a while and eventually made it to one of the best finds of the entire trip. That's right, Vivoli Gelateria! One thing we've learned about gelato... the more they give you, the lower the quality. Below is a picture of most of the gelaterias in Florence. There is literally one every other shop.


Vivoli gives you LITTLE TINY portions and they are MMMMM MMMMM YUMMMYYY!!! They are so good in fact that we actually went there twice today. YES, TWICE!!! And we're not ashamed... ok maybe a little...

With only a day left in Florence, Kristen and I made time to take in the city that is so rich in history. Many of the people that we spoke to at breakfast were concerned with the fact that they were becoming "museumed-out". Whn you spend time in areas that have the most fascinaing art and architecture and want to see it all, you tend to over-stimulate your senses with what is around you. This afternoon we visited the Uffizi Museum. There are many famous paintings in the museum, the most famous being one "Birth of Venus" by Botticelli as well as Leonardo Da Vinci's self-portrait currently in an exhibition at the museum. Seeing paintings such as this one is awe-inspiring and should not be taken for granted. Take sometime to google these paintings if you are not familiar with them.

We were totally pooped after five days of running through Rome and Florence, so we spent an hour or so on the roof with the other couples staying in the B&B. We swapped stories and had a bottle of wine and enjoyed the breeze and the afternoon sun.

As Kristen said, our night walks have become a major part of our trip. We have enjoyed seeing not only the major attractions but the side streets and alleys with their trattorias, gelaterias, and bars filled with those lounging during vacation or after a hard days work. It truly is easy to see why people fall in love with this place and wish that they could stay forever. Me, being an architectural history enthusiast, cannot get enough of what I see around each turn in the places that we have been. In fact, see the picture below of the statue of a wild bar that tourists visit. It has been said that those who rub the snout and put a coin in the grate below will return to Florence one day. We did both in hopes of returning.


We have so many stories to tell about the places we have been and we still have half our vacation left. We look forward to leaving for Tuscany tomorrow and relaxing after a whirlwind few days. Because of our location tomorrow, we may not be blogging. There may not be a place to do so at the castle. Hope to hear from you guys. CIAO!!!

PAPA...HAPPY BIRTHDAY EARLY!!! HAVE A GREAT ONE!!! SAY HI TO UNCLE GEORGE FOR US!!!