Bright and early on Tuesday morning, we boarded a bullet train to Florence, Italy. It took us about 90 minutes to get there and we got to ride through the beautiful Tuscan countryside.
This picture was for Claire. She loves sunflowers!
We finally arrived in Florence! Will and both went to high school in Florence, Alabama, so we were excited to visit the "real" Florence.
This is the Church of San Lorenzo. The facade of the church was never finished. (Michelangelo was commissioned to finish the facade, but the funds were never there.)
Lots of mopeds on the narrow streets of Florence.
The first thing we did was stand in line for a really long time to see Michelangelo's "The David" statute. Unfortunately, we couldn't take any pictures inside, but it was amazing. I had no idea it was super-human (13.5 feet tall) and displayed in a beautiful rotunda with lots of natural light. This picture was snapped while we were waiting outside the museum.
Here is a "fake" David statue we saw in another area of Florence.
Next we visited the Religious Center of the City.
It includes the Baptistry (dedicated to St. John the Baptist and the oldest building in the city) ...
And the Cathedral ...
And Bell Tower.
The political center of the city ... Piazza della Signoria. This palace still houses some city government offices.
We ate lunch in this square ... lots of outdoor seating restaurants.
And Will ordered a really large beer! (He was hot ... and apparently thirsty!)
My favorite Italian dish ... caprese salad. Look at those red tomatoes and fresh mozzarella!
The Arno River.
This is not the best picture, but Will is standing on "The Old Bridge" which is the oldest bridge in Florence and houses many of the original, world famous, goldsmith shops. Unfortunately, we did not have the funds to purchase any gold while we were in Florence.
A better picture of the scenery behind Will in the picture above.
This is another beautiful square called the Piazza della Repubblica.
Time to board the bullet train for our ride back to Rome.
"Florence" in Italian.
We arrived back in Rome just in time to freshen up for dinner. We ate at this cute spot in the Trastevere neighborhood.
The meal was good, but the tiramisu and espresso were our favorites!
That is all for Day 3!
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