Day 5: Florence

12/24: We got a good start to the day and left the Villa a little after 9. It was my turn to lay down in the boot, which is good because my back had started to hurt and sitting in the middle would have been unpleasant. Our first order of business was another airport stop to check for our lost luggage. Kyle and Emily got their bags in 15-20 minutes, and we rejoiced, but the airport told Gregg that his luggage had arrived, but was not in the lost and found. We waited another 40 minutes or so for them to find the final bag. It actually came through on a flight while we were waiting, so that was lucky. We finally had all our bags! Dad took the luggage back to the villa with the plan of meeting us at the square where the statue of David is, and the rest of us took a cab into downtown Florence.

We started our Florence trek at the Uffizi museum, where the famous Birth of Venus, or as Dad refers to it, Venus on the Half-shell, painting by Botticelli resides. We tried to absorb a lot of culture in a short amount of time, so we didn't get to fully appreciate everything. We also got burned out on seeing countless renditions of the Madonna and Child. I was excited to see some of Raphael's work too. He is my favorite painter. After our museum tour, we had a light lunch at the museum rooftop cafe.

Next, we examined the statues in the square outside the Ufiizi, especially the replica statue of David put in the square in 1910 (the real one is in the Academy Museum in Florence, that we didn't get to see), a statue of Bacchus, and an awesome statue of Neptune. There were a few other mythological statues as well, like a centaur being killed and Medusa being beheaded.

Dad was still stuck in traffic on his way to the villa, so the rest of us headed over to the Ponte Vecchio, or Old Bridge.

We wandered in and out of small shops on the way to the bridge. The Ponte Vecchio was also lined with touristy shops and Mom told us it was similar to what London Bridge was like before it collapsed.

Dad was still in transit when we finished with the Ponte Vecchio, so we hiked over to the Duomo of Florence. It was massive, and carved of beautiful green, pink, and white marble. The outside just kept going and going, I think its the largest cathedral I've ever been in. After seeing the ridiculous splendor of the outside, I had high hopes for the inside. They were somewhat dashed however, as the inside was far less impressive than the inside of the Siena Duomo. I guess all the funds were used making the outside extravagant. You can really see why the Reformation happened after viewing all of the Church's splendor in person.

Dad finally met up with us at the Duomo, and we headed back towards the car in the rain. The weather had been gloomy but the rain held off until late in the day, so we were kind of fortunate. He had parked near a fort, and if there was time we were going to take a look around

We ended up wandering into the person church of the Medici's instead, with parts designed by Michelangelo and Donatello. We saw the final resting place of one of the Medicis. We also bought a ticket to the crypt around the corner, which had holy relics, including a bone of Saint Peter. Pretty neat stuff. It was too dark to see everything surrounding the church though, and we ended up missing Michelangelo's staircase, which is in the guidebook as a thing to see. Oh well.

After that we walked towards the car in search of a restaurant to eat dinner. We didn't find one and just drove home in the treacherous fog. It was quite an ordeal driving up the foggy mountain that the villa is on in the dark, but we made it in one piece thanks to some navigating by Gregg.

We had our traditional salmon pickings for dinner and opened one present for Christmas Eve. I got a very nice hand made coffee mug from Tip City, Ohio, courtesy of the McGinnis family