Sunday March 14

What a whirlwind couple of days. I write from our the Hotel Galileo on the edge of Florence, Italy after a very full activity day. Yesterday we spent in Venice, taking in the sights and sounds of a city on water. Several of us rode the gondolas. I have to say, although we were on the grand canal and it definitely was Venice, it didn't feel any different than a ride at Disney. We were hoping our gondoleer would sing, but he didn't, so we did! We saw the Doges Palace, a very large, cold building with displays of art and weaponry through the ages of Italy. Those who told us there were street vendors everywhere were certainly not kidding! Lots of masquerade masks, glass everything and scarves. We went to a glass blowing demonstration and then walked through the showroom. Extremely beautiful, extremely expensive. They use real gold on much of it. Also went to the lace making place. What beautiful, intricate work. We ended with dinner at our hotel and a fairly early night.
Up at 7 this morning to have the traditional breakfast of hard rolls, cheese, cereal and cappucino. We drove to Florence through mountanous winding roads along the Appanini (sp?) or the backbone of italy. Beautiful, but looked a lot like the drive on I80 west through Park City, Utah. We arrived in time to have lunch. The Itialians do cheese sandwiches and pizza very well. Oh, and don't just order biscotti, it comes as many cookies in various shapes - good but not what we expected!
We were then taken on a guided walking tour of Florence where we saw the duomo (house of God) with it's beautiful domed fresco ceiling, white, red and green marble, and again, cold cold cold inside. The Italians should know how to wear sweaters, that's for sure!
We ended that portion of the day at the Academia, where the original statue of Michaelangelo's David is on display, as well as several of his (unfinished) sculptures, artwork and plaster casts of famous people and statues. The most fun part was the musical instrument section of the gallery with string instruments and clavichords and harpsichords. The Stradivarius Violin was indeed beautiful.
We then headed toward our hotel outside of the main city of Florence for a lovely dinner. Italian dinner so far has been salad, a pasta course and then chicken and either a vegetable or potato followed by desert of fruit or pudding (flan).
Tomorrow we are off to Vinci (where Leonardo came from) and then back to Florence to explore a little on our own. We are all safe and sound, not too crabby and enjoying gelato even though it's been cold. Today was warmer than yesterday, and tomorrow promises to be sunny and nice. Good night!