Trips, Pics, and Tales

So we just left the Accademia and walked along until we reached the Duomo. Such a building! It’s big, it’s colorful, it’s bright! But before going inside we took a lunch break. Christine left us for a bit and we split up. Keith and Alex went for pizza and my parents, Megan and I went to a little café. It was nothing special, but it was convenient, and air conditioned! Today was by far the hottest day so far of the trip. After lunch we did go inside the Duomo. We didn’t climb it – we decided we didn’t really have time and no one really had the energy. But going inside was quite impressive .  Then we took some time outside to admire the building, the tower and of course the Baptistery. You just have to love this picture! The baptistery doors Then we walked through Florence. Christina pointed out some highlights. We eventually got to the Ponte Vecchio Bridge. Of course we took pictures. We passed the Uffi...

We arrived at the Firenze S.M. station right on time. I feel like we’re becoming seasoned travelers now! First order of business was to find breakfast for Alex. I wasn’t sure when we’d have a chance to eat again and he’s not one who’s into t he pastry type breakfast! He found McDonalds and was good to go. We left the train station and found the taxi area. We’d have to get two taxi’s to fit all 6 of us and our luggage. We told the driver’s the name of our hotel, the Hotel Monna Lisa, and off we went – the kids and I in one, and Keith and my parents in another.  When I’ve told people we’re going to Florence, unlike when I’ve told people we’re going to Rome or Venice, I always get comments like “oh, you’ll LOVE Florence” or “Florence was my favorite city” “I can’t wait to go back to Florence” As I mentioned with Rome, I got a lot of “Rome was dirty, Rome was crowded, Rome was too much like a big city” and with Venice I heard a lot of “Venice was ok, but it smelled, or Venice was overp...