Florence Day 2

So many beautiful sights today! After a traditional Italian breakfast of cappuccino and a pastry, we walked to the Basilica of Santa Croce. Lots of notable people are interred there -- Machiavelli, Michelangelo, Marconi (inventor of the radio), and John's personal favorite, composer Rossini. From there we went to the Arno River and window shopped the 50 jewelry stores on the Ponte Vecchio. Wow, lots of bling!! Our next stop was the Palazzo Pitti, which was home to the de Medicis, and the adjacent Boboli Gardens.

After lunch we visited the Uffizi. So many breathtaking things to see there. This Michelangelo painting (the round one) was one of my favorites, but Correggio's "The Virgin in Adoration of the Child" touched my heart and brought tears to my eyes.

I don't know how many flights of stairs we climbed today, but there were a lot of them! We stopped at a little trattoria for pizza for lunch (the line at the sandwich shop pictured here was halfway down the block, so alas no porchetta today). We snacked on gelato on our way back from the Uffizi. Yum!

Tomorrow we plan to go to see Michelangelo's David at the Accademia, to shop at Mercato Centrale, and hopefully we'll have time for the Galileo Museum or the DaVinci Museum (a nice switch from art and religion).Read more