Firenze

There were 4 highlights that come to mind about Florence:

1) Our hotel was a block from the train station and was freshly rennovated so everything was gleaming.

2) We happened upon the Ponte Veccio bridge right at sunset.

3) We had dinner (after I got us extremely lost first) at a terrific and fun family style place called Il Latini, where we were sat with a couple from champagne, France and a couple from far off exotic Glendale, California. The food was great and the waiters were fun. We closed the place and exchannged emails and promised to be friends forever. Anyone want to visit champagne? or Glendale?

4) David... David... David There is a copy in the Piazza Signorie where the original once stood. So you think how different can they be? I've seen the one at Ceasar's Palace in vegas, so how different can they be? DIFFERENT! The academia museum basically exists to house David plus they fill it with some other stuff to make you feel less foolish about paying the entrance fee. It is a small museum and you enter into a gallery on the right and then have to make a left turn and an immediate right to get to David. When you start to turn your head to the right there is almost a magnetic force that glues your eyes to David. Maybe it is the way he is lit by natural light from an oculus in the center of the dome over his head. Or maybe because this is truly the most spectacular piece of sculpture ever created. I sat there staring at him for about 30 minutes spellbound. And to think that Michaelangelo created him from a piece of marble that had been discarded for being not up to snuff.

Other than these 4 things, Florence left me a bit flat to be honest. The city is very small, which you would think would be a plus the way it is in Venice. but while Venice seems to hug you with it's cozy twisting alleyways, Florence is full of tall dark buildings that sort of impose on you and make it almost hard to breath. This was especially interesting because it seemed like almost everyone we spoke to before this trip said that Florence was so amazing and that we should have extended our stay to more than one night. Well one night was perfect for me. I am glad I was there but I can't say that I have a strong urge to return, whereas say the word Venice, Amalfi, Barcelona, Sorrento and I am there.

We also found that Florence was the only place that we actually had moments of feeling unsafe and guarded, especially in the evening. Not 15 minutes into our stay we had a few shopkeepers make some incredibly crude suggestions to us... and these were guys who wanted out business! Let's just say that one of them (maybe 25 years old if that) let me know that he could show me where the real David was, and it wasn't in the museum... YUCK!!! Carolyn also had a few guys give her uncomfortably long stares and a few choice exclamations. So the net net was that Florence had it's high points, but we were ready to get back to Rome where it all began.