The rest of the story: Part IV

And now, the rest of the story....

Our last day in Rome, we visited the Pantheon. The Pantheon is one of Rome's best-preserved ancient monuments and it has been standing for over 2000 years. It was fascinating and had a neat opening in the dome. Sunlight pours in through the opening and moves around as the day progresses. After visiting the Pantheon, we decided to take our last day in Rome to walk around at leisure and see whatever we ran across. We walked by the Trevi Fountain again. We shopped. We had some lunch and soaked in the culture.

The next day we travelled to Florence. To get to Florence we took a train from the main train station in Rome. The train ride was nice and only took about an hour and a half. It was a nice transition from city life to seeing the countryside as we headed to Florence.

Once we got to Florence, we called our hotel to see if they had a shuttle. Once again we were in luck! We didn't realize it until we got there, but our hotel was on the outskirts of Florence (about a 25 minute drive from the center of town). Our hotel had a shuttle that ran several times a day to the center of town. After travelling and getting to our hotel, we had dinner in our hotel and called it a night.

Our first day in Florence, we went to the Accademia. This is where you find the famous 14-foot-tall statue of David. There were paintings, sculptures, and even an exhibit on musical instruments that were several centuries old. Seeing David however, was the best part. It was a truly amazing statue which looked flawless. Jeff read from the commentary on this statue by Michelangelo that the artist stated that "the statue was already there and he just chipped away the unnecessary pieces of marble." (paraphrased quote)

We spent the rest of the day going to a couple of churches, looking at some souvenir stores, and dining on yummy paninis and gelato.

Our next day in Florence was my favorite. We went to the famous Uffizi Gallery. This is a museum that has many works by artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli, Michelangelo, etc. I was excited to see the famous painting "The Birth of Venus" by Botticelli. We also ran across a painting of Adam and Eve that appears in the opening credits of "Desperate Housewives." It's interesting to realize how many famous paintings we actually knew as they are often used in our commercialized society. There was so much to see that it took about 3 hours to go through this gallery. After the gallery, we found this little cafe where we stopped for lunch. It was the most amazing food we had while we were in Florence. We dined on pasta, pizza, and bruschetta. It was the perfect finish to a long day of sight-seeing.

On our way home, we stopped by Florence's Duomo (large church) and the surrounding sights. We especially liked the bronze doors on the nearby Baptistery. Again, this was an amazing sight as you realize how long ago these buildings were constructed.

The next morning we packed up and started our journey home. Again, it was a day of planes, trains, and automobiles. We travelled from Florence to Rome first, then from Rome to Catania, Sicily. We had an amazing time on our trip, but it was so nice to get home as well. Hopefully you enjoyed reading about our adventures in Rome and Florence!