October 24, Sunday

Lynne and I send greetings from Venice through the rain and fog that greeted us during this afternoon’s journey. More about Venice in the next couple of days.

Saturday in Florence was a beautiful day which started for us in the Museo de Pietre Dure (maybe spelled wrong as trying to do from memory), aka the mosaic museum, where beautiful works from craftsman from centuries ago were displayed. The facility is still training new artists today. We then headed for the San Lorenzo market, only to sidetrack into a paper store just in time to see the owner design and create a piece of marble paper right before our eyes (we are bringing it home). Fascinating!! The market was full of leather and scarves mixed in with t-shirts and novelties, and went on for blocks and blocks, in the heart of what was the Medici stronghold. We were shopped out before the market ended, and headed to the Duomo (4th largest in the world) which was more impressive from the outside than from the inside (we only toured the free section though). A quick Panini on a bench outside the Duomo was lunch, and then (after switching B&Bs) we walked across the river to the Pitti Palazzo, but realized we did not have time to traverse the acres of gardens and palace floors before our appointment with David. What an amazing accomplishment David is!! The detail, the size … you have to see it, words do not do it justice.

With the trip to Venice planned for the afternoon, we took a guided walking tour of Florence on Sunday morning. Today’s crossing of Ponte Vecchio coincided with a sculler’s schedule so Lynne happily snapped this photo knowing rowing-Karen is reading our blog and will enjoy! We weren’t quite as well rested as hoped as the sights and sounds of a Saturday night in Florence seemed to penetrate the walls of Gabriella’s bed and breakfast, keeping us from getting as good a night’s sleep as we had hoped after a long walking day on Saturday around Florence.

Statues, paintings, frescoes, piazzas, palazzos, bridges and floods, duomos, guilds, torch holders and horse tethers … this could go on for hours, but in three hours we came away with a starter lesson on the twenty century plus history of Florence with an emphasis on the Renaissance period. A quick marinara pizza for lunch (where the marinara seemed to run off the pizza rather than stay on the crust … a bit of a disaster) before heading for our bus. Our longer than expected bus wait and ride was rewarded with a gelato before we jumped in the car.

The drive to Venice reflected that Italy truly has many landscapes. Hilly and through the mountains and tunnels as we headed through Bologna, the remaining drive was flat as a pancake, with low visibility and some rain so we really couldn’t take in the countryside visually as we had hoped. We dropped our bags at the airport hotel planned for Tuesday night, and then a bus and a water taxi, and we arrived at Al Ponte Mocenigo B&B, our home for the next two nights. Our room is quite lovely; the best so far outside the villa. Very Venitian -- silk wall coverings, gilded headboard & mirrors -- we feel almost like royalty after the spartan decor of our last two rooms.

Venice and Murano adventures coming soon!!