Day 10 & 11

Another early morning.  Left Venice by vaporetto and then by bus and headed for Florence.  It was only a three hour drive but we stopped at an Auto Grill for lunch.  The rest stops in Europe are something else.  They have grocery stores, general stores and restaurants in them.  You usually have to pay for the use of the restrooms but they remain pretty clean because of it.  We have been warned, however, to always have Kleenex with us as there is a good chance in Italy that you may not have toilet paper.     

We arrived in Florence and walked to our hotel, Hotel California.  There was a lift, elevator, for our luggage but we had to go up several flights of steps to get to our rooms.  Our room had a small balcony and overlooked the Duomo.

Our first excursion in Florence is to the Accademia where we will see Michelangelo's David.  We were all issued headsets so that we could hear our guides narrative without being disruptive to other people in the museum.  It is difficult to describe the feelings you experience upon getting your first glimpse of this magnificent statue.  As a group, we all turned the corner to the hallway leading to David.  The statue itself is housed under a glass dome and is approximately 14 feet tall - much larger than I had imagined.  This was a definite WOW!! moment for me.  I was absolutely in awe of the sculpture and the talent involved in creating it.  The accomplishments of Michelangelo during his lifetime as an artist, architect and sculptor are incredible.  No pictures are allowed inside the museum so we again bought postcards and took pictures of the replica located in front of the Palazzo Vecchio.

After our visit to the Accademia we all went on a walking tour of Florence, led by Karin.   We ended our first day in Florence with a group dinner at Giglio Rosso.  It was a true Italian feast and we all staggered back to our hotel.

Tomorrow we will visit the Ufizzi Gallery, the Duomo and have free time to explore other areas of Florence that catch our eye.  We will definitely find the time to hit as many gelateria's as possible as gelato has definitely become a favorite treat of ours.