Florence-Wish it was longer!

Our second stop was Florence, and we felt like we just had time to taste the icing on an amazing cake!  However, the our taste made us want to come back for more!

Our first stop was the Galleria dell' Accademia, the museum with Michelangelo's famous statue of David.  We had to choose between the wonderful paintings in the Uffizi Gallery or statues.  With a nine year old along for the ride, I opted for sculptures and we were very happy that we did.

Again we downloaded the audio tour and let Rick Steves tell us the highlights.  In the pictures you may see us with earbuds it, it was so we could get the scoop on all the incredible things we were looking at.

The statue of David is really something to behold.  We were all surprised at how big he really is and the detail with which it was carved, without the benefit of electric tools!

One wing of the museum had a room full of the molds used for different statues.  Charlie and I liked this one...

After we finished we found a gelato & granita (slush) place and everyone was magically happy!  Katie asked for the slush as Italian Ice...not sure the lady knew what she was talking about! 

Next stop was the Leonardo da Vinci museum where they had lots of kid friendly exhibits that were replicas of his inventions.  A big hit for Charlie and Katie.

I read in an older guidebook about the Gucci Museum, and the girls were most excited for a visit there.  We wandered to a beautiful old square and went into Gucci.  The lady at the desk informed us that it was no longer a Museum but now called Gucci Garden. She explained that Alessandro Michele (creative director of Gucci) has a vision that it should be an "experience" not just a museum.  

While I loved looking at the crazy shoes, clothes on display, the rest of Alessandro's vision was lost on me.  I really wanted to learn more about the history of the company and how it got to be so popular, instead there was only one small area that told you anything (shown in these pictures below).  The rest was all modern art about crazy stuff that he felt was important.  Most telling was in the downstairs there was the fancy shop and the other side was a bookstore of artsy books.  No one was buying ANY of the artsy books.  Clearly everyone wasn't buying into his vision!  It must be nice to make so much money that you aren't worried if you have an entire shop not selling anything?

They had these old logos projected on the wall....

One good explanation that talked about how the logo changed through the years.

Here is Kelly in the luggage room, thinking about which bag she might need to head off to college...somehow I have a feeling it won't be one of these!!

Everyone needs handcuffs like these!

Now for the Zebra clothes...

Have to have the right shoes to wear with that coat!

Quite the wrap...

A shot from inside the store, can't say I bought anything.   I also took a few of the girls sitting in the dressing rooms that they probably have already posted somewhere!

As we went back outside we watched this lady...the cleaning lady at Gucci washing the windows, the best part was she kept her cleaning supplies in the bag on her arm...a Gucci bag of course!  I don't want to think of the cost of her bag vs. her salary!

This guy was ready to go in, I'm guessing he will appreciate the experience more than me.  The girls were pointing out various parts of his outfit and telling me how much they cost.

Greg lead us to the beautiful Ponte Vecchio bridge, which was from the 1300's.  The views from it were beautiful.  

Towards late afternoon we collected our bags and hopped on a tram to head out a few stops toward our place for the night.  A nice lady was there to meet us and she made us a cool sign.

She also recommended her families favorite restaurant and we took a nice stroll over for a lovely dinner.  Luckily right outside our place there was a Mobike waiting that we could rent for Charlie for the ride.  It made it a much better walk for everyone!

She also sent us the name of a great gelato place for the walk back.  She was correct, it was awesome!

Besides amazing gelato and a super friendly guy who talked to us while we hung out there, it had 3 swings hanging inside, our kids were all happy!

I snapped this picture on the walk back, we saw these in many places in Italy, the restaurant would have an extra little spot outside for a few tables on the street.  It was still pretty chilly so it wasn't in use, but seems like a nice way to get more outdoor seating!

We were happy to crawl into our beds after a great day exploring Florence!

Here are a few final pictures of cool buildings that we saw when we wandered around, this is why we would like to go back..to see more of them!

Italy-First Stop Venice!

For Easter break we headed to Italy with backpacks and rode the trains between some of the great cities. We flew into Milan and took the train to Venice. 

First of many train rides!  Happy boys!

Kids LOVED this sign on the train!

We stopped in a store for a few drinks to take along and I was loving the size of the chocolate Easter eggs that they were selling! I thought these were large...

 Then I saw these!

 Luckily our AirBnB lady let us drop off our bags and we had our first wonderful slice of pizza before we hopped on the bus to the island.  The bus driver was crazy but we all held on for dear life and made it in one piece! 

Here are some of the beautiful wooden boats we saw when we first got to the canals!

We walked around the canal and took the vaparetto (water bus) boat ride from the main bus stop to St. Mark's.  We had downloaded the Rick Steve's Audio tour and he narrated the entire ride.  It was great to listen and look out at all the amazing places as we cruised by.

Here are what the vaporetto stops look like.

We learned that the colored poles outside the doors were like a family crest...

Gorgeous paintings on this one!

I liked the designs on this one!

More beautiful paintings!

The Venetian flag was really cool, their symbol is the winged lion!

 We stumbled into an art exhibit by some University students, then lighting outside was cool and lured the girls in.  Kelly figured out this first one, it is a Vaparetto driver (ACTV) hugging a gondola driver as there is a pretty constant tension between them, they are always in each others way!

 I also like this one of the tired gondola driver earning a well deserved soak in the tub at the end of a long day!

 As we walked into St. Mark's square there were lots of well dressed people there to celebrate the University of Venice's graduation ceremony.  The female graduates seemed to all be in red and everyone had wreaths in their hair and lots of flower bouquets!

 By the time we reached St. Mark's square poor Charlie's 4:30 AM departure time caught up with him and he had an epic meltdown (just ask his sisters).  We never got to go in the famous church or bell tower, we had to instead go find him some food!

He took the picture because he was too mad to be in it!

So beautiful, maybe I'll get to go inside on my next trip?

 Captain Candy was the Venetian Deb Pond...(our famous candy friend from Wakefield) Captain Candy ensured Charlie had enough sugar to make it home at the end of a long day...

Inside the candy store were just giant barrels full of perfectly arranged candy!

A beautiful shot of the famous Rialto Bridge!

An interesting sign...on a local restaurant.

On the bridge!

We hopped onto a traghetto gondola for a quick ride across, these are what the locals use in an area where there is no bridge.  It was a perfect way to get a short ride in!

 We stopped and bought a bottle of the local homemade wine...the guy sells it to you in a recycled plastic bottle...it was pretty good! Here are the jugs he stores it in!

 Just a cool old building we passed on the walk.

One thing we kept passing in our walk was table looking things on most of the sidewalks, they were all stacked up.  I had a bought a book that showed what it was like when the high tides come and flood the streets.  

I found a picture online of what it looks like when they set those elevated sidewalks up...I learned they are called passarelle.  Here is a photo with the passarelle in use....

I found this great blog that explains more about the high tides.  Here is a link if you are curious  https://www.walksofitaly.com/blog/venice/flooding-acqua-alta-tips

I consider us very fortunate to NOT have been there for the high tides.  It was April (only the start of the high tourist season) but it was PACKED with people and many of them were wheeling luggage around.  This is why Charlie found it a bit exhausting, we were always moving through crowds.  I can't imagine moving through crowds on the walkways and trying not to fall in and get soaked!

We arrived home exhausted but happy to have seen it all, at our place there was this piece of wood displayed. Greg figured out it was one of the gondola oar rests.

 Here is what the plaque said, clearly someone in the family earned it!

We also learned that Venice is a dying city due to the high cost of living, and all the challenges of living there.  Each year it loses about 1,000 of its permanent residents, about 60,000 now.  They predict that someday it may just be a living museum just for tourists.  Very sad to think about and we consider ourselves lucky to have seen it as a real city and before its water level is any higher!