Day Nine - May 30, 2012
Florence, Italy
Daily Didactic
The day started earlyish. We seem to have overcome our jet lag and now are at risk of our summertime pattern of later and later rising. Fortunately for our touristing schedule that only means 7:30 at this point, but history indicates this will creep later. We were on foot to the train station (reservations on the train to Rome tomorrow are compulsory, we are learning) by 8:00ish. We reserved two seats in first class (Eurail passes for those over 25 include "complimentary first class" seating, which is swell because they cost more than the college kids pass). We then started the relatively short trek to the Uffizi Gallery. Believe it or not, this gallery is actually the "biggest deal" yet. We used our Firenze passes to skip the line and were soon completely overwhelmed by a ridiculous collection of art. The biggest deals were the Birth of Venus by Botticelli and the Doni Tondo by Michelangelo, but really it was all really nuts. We did the audio tour and hit comment number ninety six. Even Brian is beginning to pick up on the general idea. We followed the Uffizi with a walk through the very cool Galileo Science Museum, a visit to the Church of San Croce (where Michelangelo, Galileo, and Machiavelli are entombed), and a refreshing stroll through the manicured Boboli Gardens of the Medici. Listen to all of that Europe speak. We worked our way (in some of our least efficient path finding yet) back to our hotel alley and had an awesome dinner at the Trattoria Nerune (ravioli and seafood pasta). Back in our room by 8:00, a good solid twelve hours of touristing and culture. We think we might be getting our tourist legs under us.
Today's Photos
