Florence, the City of Beauty

We arrived in Florence late at night and walked to our hotel. This was the first time we encountered air-conditioning, and the first time hubby had slept in a couple days. The only negative encounter was a slug on daughter's bed, but it was quickly freed.

Early in the morning, we lined up outside the Bel Accademia to view the David. This view is actually the copy in a piazza. They don't allow pictures of the real one.

After the David, we got turned around and ended up in the piazza with the cathedral and baptisterie where Dante was baptized. They are separate buildings, because no one was allowed in the Cathedral until after they were baptized.

Again, we only had a few hours in Florence, so we were not able to explore these sites. We had our priorities, and for today, it was art work.

We boogied back to our hotel and checked out, stowed the bags, and high-tailed it back to the river Arno, where we spent several hours in the Uffizi. This and the David were some of my favorite things of this whole trip. I spent some time up close and sitting and pondering Botticelli's Birth of Venus and Primavera, or the Three Graces.

Afterwards, we had lunch at a nice cafe, went and got our tickets and headed to the train station to go to Rome.