Saturday, April 3rd - Florence, Italy

We were much more organized this morning and were out of the hotel room and eating breakfast by 8:20a.m. It wasn’t a breakfast to brag about, so we’ll just say that we had enough to eat so we weren’t hungry and were ready to go.

Our hotel recommended that we get reservations for the Academia Museum where Michelangelo’s sculpture, “The David” was located, so we wouldn’t have to stand in the long lines that we would find there. They said that the reservations weren’t much more than a ticket to get in, but when we got there, we were pretty surprised to find that the hotel had charged us 14 euro and a ticket to get in was only 6.5 euro! We did appreciate not having to stand in line, but I’m not sure that it was worth the many extra euros we paid.

After going through the xray screenings with all backpacks, purses, etc., we saw beautiful paintings and then walked into the room where the 17 foot David was on display. It was truly the most amazing sculpture we had ever seen. Michelangelo was a genius and what is even more amazing is the fact that he did the David when he was only 27 or 29 years old! The kids were a little embarrassed by the unclothed statue, but we focused on his arms, legs, feet, hands, the story of David as a young man, and how realistic this sculpture looked. Jason and I were pretty sad that they would not allow pictures to be taken, but Jason still, very sneakily, took a couple that I hope turn out ok. We spent about an hour in this museum and really enjoyed the beautiful art that we were able to see. When the guards started getting after the boys for touching the ropes and climbing under the “boundries,” we decided to vacate the premises. Italian people have very little patience with children, we have found. Also, Paris is much more family friendly than either Rome or Florence. In Paris, all children are free, under 18, for all museums and exhibits, including transportation! Here and in Rome, Will is the only one free and every other child has to pay an adult price. It’s exceedingly more expensive here as a result.

Climbing the Florence Chapel. After
Beautiful views of Florence
The Baptistry where Michelangelo was baptized
Lunch at a yummy Pizzaria – and didn’t kill us on price
Church where Micelangelo was buried – along with Galeleio, the man who wrote Cinderella, Dante—the poet that influenced Michelangelo so much—the cloisters and lots of pictures.
A walk along the river and the Bridge that Jason loves again.
Ice cream treats
Rain
Hotel for a movie for the boys
Jennifer and Vanessa went and got the Marble statues of Moses, the David and Winged Victory! Vanessa got two masks that she loved.
Came back to the hotel, did laundry, went to dinner. Really delicious.
Back to the hotel.
Not able to get on line with the internet to see Conference.
Leaving for Pisa and Rome tomorrow.