Christmas in July

Christmas in July...a beautifully wrapped present with bows and glitter....that's what today felt like.  After a gourmet breakfast in Fabio's garden, Patty and I set out by foot to see Florence.  We were to meet Jeremy and the boys at the Duomo at 11:30.  We got there early, so we found the tourist information office and asked about tickets to the various museums.  We ended up deciding that, for us, it would be better to pay for each site.  Children under 14 are free, and though there is a surcharge if you want to book a reservation and thereby avoid the line, the lines seemed short and moved quickly, so we decided just to pay the basic entry fee.  For the Uffizi, that would be 11 euros per adult. We saw mimes outside the museum, in costume and make-up, which were pretty interesting.

Jeremy had said he would meet me at the Duomo ticket place...since there are three entrances to the Duomo, it would have been better to name an intersection at which to meet.  They were coming on the morning train from Pisa, so I should have had him text me when he got to the Duomo, but hindsight is always 20/20, isn't it?  I sent him two messages and waited in the piazza for an hour and a half.  I was almost ready to give up, when I saw a green baseball cap walk across the piazza with two backpack laden boys.  I whistled.  They turned.  I yelled, "Mama Mia, mi bambinos!". Christmas in July.

We walked to our B&B where they laid on the bed in the air conditioning for a good 10 minutes, then they left their backpacks and we walked to a nearby pizzeria for lunch.  We bought tickets for the Uffizi and spent nearly two hours walking through rooms filled with amazing art.  We saw pieces by Filippo Lippi, Botticelli's Birth of Venus and La Primavera, Caravaggio's Bacchus, and my favorite, Bellini's Lamentation over the Body of Christ.  Patty's favorite was Michaelangelo's Doni Tondo.  The Renaissance painters introduced depth in paintings along with emotion, and I feel richer for having seen them.  It was in the 80's outside, but the Uffizi was air conditioned and Jeremy showed Jordan just how good it feels when you find the main vent.

We walked back to our B&B by way of the Ponte Vecchia, the only bridge over the river Arno that wasn't destroyed during World War II.  All of that hard tourist work deserved a treat, so we headed to a gelato shop where we each had a double scoop.  Only Patty exhibited any manner of self control and that is because she had had a gelato when we were waiting for Jeremy.  She thought you couldn't have gelato twice in a day.  Really? 

Jeremy and the boys retrieved their backpacks and headed to their accommodations north of us.  We are going to meet them in the morning and go to the Leonardo Da Vinci Machine Museum.  Patty and I had enormous salads for dinner and are happily watching the World Cup match between the US and Belgium.  Ciao ciao.