Last Day in Florence

Today was our last day in Florence. We started out the day as we normally do with breakfast in the hotel. We had a 10 AM appointment to visit the Uffizi Gallery, where we could see the progression of art from The Bysantine Period to the 17th century. There are over 50 rooms in the Uffizi. We had an audio guide that explained what we were seeing in each gallery. It is a great way to tour an art gallery. We saw all the great masters of the Rennaisance in this meseum. We were there for nearly three hours and saw just about every room.

We took a rest at a cafe in the gallery before heading on to lunch. We stopped for lunch at a place where they make Turkish wraps. Not the best choice. Yoko and I are both kind of sick of Italian every day and decided to eat at something NOT Italian last night. iI asked the concierge at the hotel if there was a French restaurant we could try and he unequivially said "there are no French restaurants in Florence". When I asked what he could suggest that was not Italian, he offered us Chinese! So last night we had Chinese at a place a few minutes from the hotel. Yoko had dunplings and a noodle soup; I had wanton soup and a beef and green pepper dish. For desert we had amindofu...yum. It was actually pretty good, though somewhat lacking in atmosphere.

Anyway, this afternoon, after lunch, we went to the Academia Gallery to see Michaelangelo's David. Very impressive. I had no idea that is was so big. They had a lot of sculpture in this gallery as well as a special display on Giotto, who was called the father of the Rennaisance. The gallery was not that large and we were in and out in an hour.

The rest of the afternoon we spent walking around the city. I bought a book called the Story of Art, that is a best selling art history book from the 1950's. Yoko bought some street art from people plying there wares in the Plazza. We listened to a suprano sing opera in one plaza, in another we listened to a guitarist. He was so good I bought two of his CDs! Anyway, it was a beautiful day...blue skys and 70 degrees, and a pgreat way to spend a Sunday.

E went to the Catherdral to hear mass, stopping at the Savoy for coffee and a lemonchillo. There was some special event going on...Bishop Guisepi was saying mass. The massive Duomo was filled to the brim with people. There was so many people, in fact, that they set up a large screen TV in the Piazza in front of the church, so the overflow crowed could watch.

Tonight we are going out for dinner at an upscale restaurant called Alle Murata, reccommended by the hotel. I am hoping it will be good.

tomorrow we head for Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast.