Where we've been and where we're going next...

Ciao!

| Sunday, October 30, 2005

The clocks have just gone back in Florence so we had a nice surprise this morning when we thought we were running late and found out that we were still in time for breakfast :) We are having a slight crisis here, having just found out that this weekend is the last major holiday in Italy, Nov 1st is All Saints Day and so all the hotels are booked up in Rome. Hmmmm... we are working it out (fingers crossed), in the worse case scenario we will probably end up staying an extra day here in Firenze (oh no!)

On Friday when we arrived, we climbed the Duomo and saw the sun set over Florence, it was mesmerizing.
Then we had a great dinner at Trattoria Marione. Yesterday we walked our feet down to stumps as we visited the Uffizi gallery, the Accademia and the Santa Croce Church. Byzantine to High Renaissance in one day! Oh, and Vivoli's gelato :) One thing that has stood out on this trip is how much of bloody Europe is under scaffolding!! Everywhere we have gone, everything is shrouded in scaffolding, even the lantern on top of the Duomo is obscured. But thankfully the dome itself is untouched. Inside the Santa Croce Church it was like a jungle gym. But oh well, it is becoming quite a joke.



A few of the art highlights yesterday were:


Botticelli's Birth of Venus














David, absolutely incredible in person













Venus of Urbino

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Re Rome - Try Hotel Apollo, Via dei Serpenti - on internet x tel # and prices.
We stayed there - central, clean, nice. Good for Termini Station too, 5 mins in taxi, 20 mins walk.

Anonymous said...

Glad you love Firenze! Great that the weather is holding up. Have a fabulous time in Roma! Just wait till you see the Colesseum...so amazing.