Florence, - City of the Arts -

Gathered up our stuff and hoped a 3 hour bus ride from Venice down to Florence, birthplace and heart of the Renaissance. Upon arrival on the Arno River, we passed over the same ground as our 2006 trip. Florence (for me) was one of the major highlights of all of Italy. Only 100 tour buses are granted permits per day to visit, so as to limit foot traffic and city congestion. Theo informed us that police check the buses regularly, and the fines are pretty intense for the bus drivers if they don’t have the proper paperwork.

The Piazza Signoria demarked by the Medici hizzle/crib, (that’s home for you over-30 folks) was quite impressive. The Medici family were some serious powerful banker types, who controlled the purse strings of Florence’s gold and leather/textile trade. Hell, this family was considered one of the richest in all of Europe and not only controlled mercantile trade; they bankrolled the Vatican and in the process managed to get a few family members elected as Pope by pure coincidence. (Funny how that works) This relationship helped keep their home town of Florence on the Who’s who power list of Italy. Depending on what you read, the Medici family were great patrons of the arts, allowing and supporting many artists that sprang from this city, funding such household names as Michelangelo, Leonardo, Botticelli, etc. Other accounts portray the Medici clan as vicious blood sucking political bastards, as. Machiavelli can attest to.

Outside of their household, is a covered display of actual statues that seem under constant assault from the endless army of pigeons. These are just a few shots that can be found there.

The crowning achievement to Florence however, is the Duomo. (meaning house, as in the house of God) also known as its proper name which is the Cathedral of Florence. A massive man -made mountain of bricks whose size and splendor is so very large that it simply defies my ability to convey to you in this text format. John urged us to climb its winding spiral staircases, which allows the out of breath sweaty tourists to catch a better glimpse of the rotunda's stain glass and frescoes as shown here.

However, the dome continues to go above the interior ceiling, all the way to the top of the church itself. After my trip, a friend informed me that the workers actually slept at the top, and had shops to purchase food and supplies so as not to have to go back down! 600 some years ago Brunelleschi gets the credit for designing this monster, completing it with over 37,000 tons of rock suspended up in the air, inspired by the shape of an Egg, made our legs burn with each step towards the top. Walking on top of the Dome was as inspirational as it was rewarding. I’m very glad we got to scale it to the top, as the view was unreal. Here are some skyline shots of Florence from our view.

For lunch, Stacie, Meer and I staked out a pizza place in the shadow of the Medici complex. It was pretty good, and Meer approved. Of course later we had to sample some Gelato, (as shown heaped up in the glass container) Italian ice cream which blows the US version of synthetic soba gum and fake dairy substitutes away. Tuscan food is simply beyond words, and is my favorite out of the rest of the country. For some reason, Florence just knows how to make good food. Here are some mouth watering shots, and yeah, it tastes as good as it looks.

The Ponte Vecchio Bridge was a covered bridge which contained various jewelry shops (as shown) and leather traders. Rumor is the Medici family didn’t want to have to look at the slums and used the bridge to hide their movements across the river to the Palace/fortress that sits above Florence. It was the only bridge that was spared during WW2 by the Nazis, as Hitler has a special fondness for its look and history.

The infamous Statue of David, is located in the Academia Museum which we really enjoyed touring. The museum was pretty strict about photographing the sculpture of David, which I thought was odd, since part of it was in direct sunlight. I mean I can see not using a flash camera on a painting or fresco, but you can’t tell me my simple flash is going to do more damage to a piece of rock than having the masterpiece in the line of direct ultra-violet sunlight? Anyway, I snapped this (non flash) pic while nobody was watching, so there! Bullet proof glass barricades now protect the statue's base, since 3-4 years ago, some retard walked into the museum with a hammer and smashed off the masterpiece’s pinky toe. The reason Michelangelo chose to portray this particular pose of David, is because the sculptor wanted to show the moment of awareness when it occurred to David in his own mind that he could take down giant Goliath. It is a momentary pause of confidence, right before the killing shot is thrown.

One of the other school’s group leaders, named John Rentar, (Seen here) turned out to befriend us. His group was very small and blended quite nicely with our students. Rentar as it turns out is a Jedi Master of EF tour groups, having been to Florence about half a dozen times, many summers over. We soon came to realize John knew lots of things to see and do around Italy and Greece as well. John turned out to be a God send, helping us keep track of all the other kids, using walkie talkies which was a brilliant system for when kids break up and go off together in various groups.

At the end of the day, our bus driver, Samuel, took us to the scenic overlook of Florence, where we got some pretty neat cityscape pics and panoramic shots. Then we drove 1 & ½ hrs outside of the city to our hotel which was WAY too far out of Florence in a town known for its health spas and volcanic springs named Montecantini. Florence traffic was simply murder, and once arriving back at the hotel, the kids went off to a local disco and had fun mixing with the locals. Meer and I went along to help chaperon and I of course got razzed for taking him to ‘Teen-night’. It was all in good fun, and afterward we sat out on the patio and celebrated Yodi (one of the Texans) 27^th birthday before calling it a night.