The trip over for all four of us was log but uneventful. We were concerned because Rick & Suzy flew from Houston to join us. We both had connecting flights, and our ability to communicate was limited until Danita and I found a way to swap our phones’ SIM cards. It seemed like a possibility for an arduous experience linking up in Europe. But everything worked out perfectly. All 4 of our flights were on time. No baggage was lost. Sharp-eyed Danita found a cell phone store in the Rome airport. We even caught a little sleep on the plane coming over.

Our hotel in Florence is the Hermitage. It is about a block from the famous bridge Ponte Vecchio. The butchers built their shops on this bridge. The Medeci kicked them out because they were smelly, and invited the gold and silver artisans to move in. To this day, the bridge has jewlery shops. This is a shot of the bridge from our hotel’s rooftop garden.

The other Florence headliner is the “Duomo”, the dome on Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiorenze. How is it that the town we call “Florence” the Itanians call “Fiorence”? I don’t know. But for something built in the 7th century, it cerainly has an impressive dome.

Yesterday we dedicated ourselves to visiting museums. We started with the Ufizzi, which was built as the Medeci’s office building, then moved on to the Pitti Palace. The Pitti was built by a family who competed with the Medecis. The Pitti family went broke, and the Medici’s bought it for their home. Both buildings were amazing in their own rights, and were filled with even more amazing stuff. Usually one museum room is pretty much like the next, but some of the Ufizzi rooms had a completely different feel based on space, lighting. and content.

Pictures don’t mean much without the captions. In the galleries at the bottom of these blogs, you have to click on the picture to see the caption. You can scroll right to see the next picture.