Sunday, April 3, 2011

Nashville!

We are back in Nashville with all 19 still alive and well! (including one in Atlanta... Samantha)

What a day! It is currently 3am Italy time and we were up at 4:30am!

Back in the USA!

Waiting in lines and for baggage in Philadelphia!

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Florence Day two- David and Fiesole

Quick update during a break!

Everyone managed to get up "early" (8:00) and we were inside the Galleria di Accademia by 9am! We took our time, listening to our wonderful guide Michele (or Mike or Michael) explain lots of amazing info about Michelangelo, Bertocelli, and the other awesome people. We saw some 17th century violins and pianos, unfinished works of Michelangelo, and of course David himself. We also saw some plaster models used to create the plans for some large marble sculptures we saw yesterday at the Duomo!

Then we hopped on a bus and took a ride up to Fiesole for some spectacular views of the city (although a bit hazy). We camped under a church corner and ate a makeshift lunch of bread, cheese, proscuitto/salami, and water. Maybe the simplest but tastiest meal of the week.

Now the kids are doing some last shopping before we meet up again for dinner.

Friday, April 1, 2011

Florence

Arrived safely in Florence early this morning, but we couldn't check into the hotel immediately because our arrival time was before check-in. So we pilled our bags into a spare room and we out for a general bit of shopping and wandering around the squares until we met our tour guide at 2pm.

We climbed 463 stairs inside the San Maria Di Fiore (or The Dome - Duomo) and had a complete view of all of Florence - pretty amazing! Afterwards, we did a lot of walking to various places around Florence. It was also discovered that Baylor has eaten over 50 flavors of Gelato since his arrival in Italy...I'm still amazed by this recent discovery!

Everyone is exhausted now and taking a quick nap before we head out to dinner around the corner. Italy has been an amazing adventure so far!

Ciao!