Florence

Here we are in Florence!  We had a good drive from Rome to Florence.  It is a beautiful city!  We found our hotel, really nice, and then took off to walk around.  We got tickets for the Uffizi that afternoon and the Academia the next day.  We also went to see the Duomo on both days!  

There were lots of great shops, including some beautiful leather shops!  I started drooling over the Italian leather purses and jackets... 

 Almost to the Duomo!

 Here it is, noisy facade and all.  It's pretty cool that they built the Duomo before they had the knowledge of how to MAKE a dome.  They left the top just an empty hole until they could figure out how to enclose it.

 Here we are inside.

 The dome was the architectural feat, but I swear the regular beams and main area was the most beautiful to me.

 The dome.

 The section with these doors was actually being refurbished or something, but aren't they pretty!? Talk about lavish!

 Here we are outside the Uffizi.  I got a guidebook and read up on the stuff inside so I'd be ready to be amazed.

 Somewhere there's a shot of me in front of Machiavelli since my senior thesis was on him, but I'm not sure what happened to that photo.

 This little bridge is full of jewelry shops.  Whit said I could get something but the only ring I really wanted was 6,000 pounds... so I figured I'd pass.  LOL.

 Michaelangelo's Holy Family with Infant.

 Here's a shot of the Uffizi from the patio.

 This wasn't famous, but it touched me.  All the depictions of Jesus were strange, but this one reminded me of Jesus I know.  I saw a lot of Botticelli and I saw many other famous paintings, like the Birth of Venus, etc.

 We went up to the steps of the Piazza Michaelangelo after that.  It was really cool.  There was live music, an Italian guy covering the weirdest mix of American songs you've ever heard. We saw three brides.