Florence

Wow, Florence is wonderful! Its beutiful here. Its a mix between the windy streets of Venice, the crowdedness of Rome, and the Tuscan beauty of Siena. I love it here. Yesterday we visited the Duome, which is a huge church in the middle of the city. Huge, but rather plain compared to others weve seen in Europe. We are staying in a hotel that overlooks the Arno river and is about 800 years old, relly nice for the price though. We grabbed lunch at a small deli that makes probably the best sandwhich ive ever had, finally they put a decent amount of meat on there!! So good! Our meal was followed by gelato of course, which was wonderful for Luara and I becauseit had been over 2 days since we had it last, shame. The David was our next stop and goodness; this grand statue was overwhelming. I didnt know too much about it, but standing in front of the massive stucture, you have no choice but to be in awe of it perfection. The rest of that museum was dull campared to the famous statue. We saw some girls who recognized Laura and my Sky Ranch backpacks and let us know she was a councelor there a few years ago, she was an Aggie as well. Small world.

After a little window shopping and people watching, we hiked along the Arno River to a Piazza where dozens of Italians were watching the World Cup on an oversized TV screen. They all had food and beer, but no talking- lots of concentration on the game. We continued to hike up a hill where we found Piazza de Michelangelo. There were tons of people up there because the view of Florence with the Tuscan countryside in the background is breathtaking. We found some food, watched a dozen or more bride and grooms come up to the Piazza to take wedding pictures overlooking the city, and then watched the most gorgeous sunset. It was quite the night. We walked back to our hotel and stopped at the Ponte Vecchio bridge and listened to some live music before going to bed. Great day.

Today, we explored yet another museum, the Uffizi. Great works of art, a little over my head, but very impressive none the less. It lunch time irhg tnow so i will hopefully finish the rest of my day later. Love yall and miss you.