Sept 6 - It's all about David

First I want to say that suffering through yesterday without a nap paid off. Both of us were asleep at a reasonable hour (I fell asleep in a chair even) and got about eight hours of sleep. Today we both feel well rested and I think finally on Italy time.

Here’s what we did today:

• Ufizi Gallery – huge collection, so many amazing things (my favorite was The Venus of Urbino by Titian, check out the little dog)
• Shopping – we went to the indoor portion of the San Lorenzo where they have food. It’s amazing. For example you can buy a whole pig’s head. The produce was colorful. We got some beautiful fruit.
• Academia – we saw David!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Saw La Traviata at the Opera – this production would be the equivalent of “regional” theater in the states. The performers were excellent, beautiful voices, but the rest of the production left something to be desired. Luckily in opera it’s all about the music.

Precious moments of the day:

• The campanile bells at Piaza del Duomo started ringing just as we walked into the square at 8am this morning. It felt like fated timing.
• Walking through the streets of Florence early in the morning before any of the shops are open, watching the vendors just starting to set-up and feeling like we had the place all to ourselves.
• Buying the handbag I’d been coveting at Mercato Nuovo.
• Did I mention we saw David? We saw David!!!!!!!!!!!!
• When I found a street sign for Via de Gori (the De Gori are my ancestors, my grandpa told me to look for signs of them in Florence)
• When I rubbed the head of Porcellino (a statue of a wild boar) to ensure my return to Florence. He is black except for where people rub his head (it’s so worn the metal doesn’t tarnish and it’s bright gold).

Funny moment of the day: We had reservations for the Accademia at 4pm, but both of us were so focused on our excitement about going to opera that we almost forgot about it. I was out for a walk around 1:30 and suddenly remembered, so I slipped into an internet café and emailed Jen to remind her and figure out when we would meet up.

It was a bellisimo day – and oh, by the way - we saw David!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ciao-ciao,
:) Kristin

P.S. Sorry we haven’t posted many pictures. We don’t have a powerful enough internet connection here to get them to upload most of the time. We’ll post them asap.