Day...um...What Day is It?

Today was our first and only full day in Florence - we had a pretty full schedule of
museums and sights to visit. A brief recap of yesterday, since all we did was post
pictures: the trip to Florence had a few wrinkles. We got up yesterday morning in
Monterosso to grey skies, and by the time we got to the train station and got our
tickets, it soon started raining. OUr train ended up being delayed 45 minutes, then 90,
then over 2 hours. We ended up catching a train to La Spezia, then making our original
train to Pisa. We caught one of the plentiful regional trains from there to Florence.
We didn't get to our hotel until after 2pm, which was the time of our appointment at the
Accademia museum.

We still had several hours to spend in Florence, so we made a visit to the Duomo and
Duomo Museum. The Duomo is one of the largest cathedrals in Europe, and is capped by
the dome built by Fillipo Brunelleschi, the first of its kind since ancient Roman times
and the first to be built without any interior support scaffolding. We climbed to the
top (463 steps) for some stellar views of Florence.

Today we managed to fit in most of the rest of our itinerary in Florence. First up was
the Bargello, one of the local sculpture museums containing works by Donatello and other
noted sculptors. After that we headed for the Science Museum, which turned out to be
closed (despite their posted hours indicating otherwise). Instead we hit the church of
Santa Croce, which houses the tombs of Galileo, Michelangelo, and Machiavelli. Later we
toured the Uffizi Gallery, which contains the greatest collection of Italian paintings
anywhere in the world. Raphael, Botticelli, Michelangelo, Titian, and a bunch of others
I can't remember.

Later in the day we made it to a rescheduled appointment at the Accademia, and were able
to see an interesting exhibit of 17th and 18th century musical instruments. The gem of
the Accademia is Michelangelo's David sculpture. Take a look at some photos online -
the sculpture is enormous in person and hard to get a sense of from photos, but the
power of it is amazing to see.

The rest of the day was fairly low-key. We had a little siesta in our hotel, then
headed out for a great Tuscan dinner. We visited the Ponte Vecchio (the Old Bridge)
over the River Arno, then Jill enjoyed some hot chocolate before we caught some of a
local band concert in front of the Palazzo Vecchio. Oh - and some more of the BEST
gelato we've had (well, at least that I've had) so far. A gelateria just down the
street sells cioccolata fondante, which tastes like a bar of dark chocolate converted
into the silkiest, smoothest cup of ice cream I've ever tasted. It's GREAT. They also
make a flavor here called frutti di bosco, which is basically "forest fruits", or
various berries. Blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries - the two of them
go very well together.

A few of the more interesting things we've discovered about Italy in the last week or
so, particularly in the big cities:

- Italians seem to very rarely go to the restroom - there are hardly any public toilets,
and those are almost always at the train stations and cost 70 cents. For future
reference, anytime you visit Italy, go to the bathroom every time you can (museums,
restaurants, etc.)

- Certain things are ridiculously expensive. A can of Coke costs around 2 Euro. A
plate of asparagus in Jill's dinner last night was 15 Euro. For reference, a Euro is
about $1.34 right now - so that can of Coke is about $2.70. Water in restaurants isn't
free - you have to buy it by the bottle (usually 2-3 Euro). A 1 liter bottle is good
for about 4-5 8oz. glasses. So far We've managed to make it through dinners with just
one bottle, but sometimes just barely.

- There are tons of street vendors in the big cities, at least so far (Rome and
Florence). They almost all seem to be foreign, and they all seem to be selling nearly
the same thing - the Africans sell sunglasses, purses, and umbrellas. The Middle
Eastern guys sell roses and little toys, and in Florence we've seen a few asian vendors
selling little artsy pieces made from grass or reeds. The really weird thing is that
their goods all appear to be nearly the same. Here in Florence, there are probably 50
different guys who sell poster-sized prints of famous art. They lay them out on the
street and hawk them as the crowd passes by. It would make sense, except that they all
seem to be selling the exact same posters.

- Americans really have it good when it comes to hotels. Our last two beds are queen
size beds - technically. They're really just two twins pushed together. They're also
about the stiffest beds I've ever laid on. Sort of like sleeping on the beach - except
you can't mold the sand to your body. It's like lying on a fairly soft plank of wood.

Tomorrow it's off to Venice. We've heard mixed reviews so we're curious to see what
it's like. We're supposed to have a Wi-fi connection there so more photos should be on
the way shortly. Keep the comments and emails coming!