Florence

Reflections on our three days in Florence

Charming....I got my first 2 charms on my bracelet.  One of colosseum in Rome and one of David.  Obviously:)

The light on the Duomo makes the city glow.

Walking a mile uphill to hear the Dominican monks chant,  made perfect sense and ended our day perfectly.

A diet of Nutella crepes, spaghetti and salad, gelato and  wine also makes perfect sense. Who needs protein?

Walking in circles, is worth it when the sunset is so beautiful we have been happy to circle around until it sets, the reflection of the buildings gets more interesting every time you circle back and your hiking boots are still comfortable after 10 hours of standing and walking.

Getting "lost" has been our theme for the past few days and what a wonderful place to get lost.  Every street twists and turns with flower boxes peeking from every balcony and new views of the familiar landmarks sometimes just jump out at us.  We use Emily when we really need to find something. But mostly we are just enjoying exploring the little streets and finding secluded little neighborhoods with local restaurants and friendly singing locals.


This city with its shop keepers who love their hand made leather, the artists in the plaza that carefully wrap and protect the painting they painted this morning, and the group of young people who banded together with us to keep out people trying to cut in line in front of us after we had waited 2 hours.  We had no idea how bonded our little group was until our place in line was threatened by an outsider.  It made penny and I smile.

From early morning until late, we tromped from one end of the city to the other, watched the grumpy Americans complain, the fire y Italians protect their place in line for the Uffitzie and felt so lucky to be alive on a planet where Italians share their place with us.

I cannot imagine a city with more to give the world, Michelangelo , Donatello , da Vinci , in the past two days we got to see where da Vinci tried out his flying machines, Michelangelo's only canvas painting and the brilliance of the renesaince painters that added three dimensional images to our world. It is a bit overwhelm ing.

We try to pay attention to the mundane things in our life like washing out our socks and remembering to check the train schedule, but the majority of our time here has been spent walking, learning, and taking the time to watch this beautiful city move from rain, to sun, to darkness. The church bells ring all day on Sunday from the many churches sprinkled through out the town center.