Florence

We then got on a train to Florence, my favorite city so far.  We sat next to the Indian couple and the Australians on this trip, and probably sold the Australians on an iPad.  :-)  Our hotel in Florence was right on the Duomo Square.  Unfortunately there weren’t any rooms on that side of the hotel available, but here’s a picture from one of those rooms.

Our room opened up to an alleyway that was very quiet.  The hotel was called Soggiorno Battisterio and I would highly recommend it.  One of the owners is actually from San Jose, so she speaks English perfectly but knows her way around the city and knows her Italian as well.  She’s married to an Italian (who we never met).

We had reservations at the Accademia and the Uffizi.  The Accademia is mostly for the David statue.  I never imagined the statue being so huge and beautiful.  It was another “wow” moment.  As we were walking towards the statue, I all of a sudden saw familiar faces, the Forbes!  They have been longtime family friends and Pat was both Stephen and I’s history teacher in high school.  We took a picture as proof:

Neither of us knew the other would be in Europe, it was just sheer coincidence that we ran into them.  Everybody now: “It’s a small world after all....”

After the Accademia we headed for the Uffizi, a gallery of art and sculpture.  There are so many paintings in there it is hard to know what to look at.  Luckily we had another audio guide to help us.

The best ice cream I have every had in my life we had after dinner.  I had chocolate chip and caramel.  It was lighter, like homemade ice cream at home, but still very creamy.  So far, Florence really has lived up to its reputation as the best gelato anywhere.

Sorry there aren't too many pictures, we couldn't take any inside the museums.  Here's a few of the Duomo and the area around it: