08 December 2010

Ciao Firenze!

Well today is our last day in Florence, and it is bitter sweet. The city is absolutely gorgeous, I think I would live a very happy life if I could look at the Duomo every day. It is the most beautiful architecture I have ever seen! A lot has happened since my last post; I survived a day trip to Arrezo with Kat where we wandered around the gorgeous city which was filled with booths selling antiques. I saw my favorite works of all time: Botticelli's Birth of Venus and Primavera, I got to see Parmigianino's creepy Madonna and Child as well as Fra Filippo Lippi's serene one, and the wonderful Venus of Urbino all in the Uffizi Gallery and of course Michelangelo's DAVID in all of his glory in the Accademia Gallery. I look forward to dinner every night, it is always an adventure! My future husband, Elton, the front desk host at the Belletini Hotel recommended a restaurant to us that we have visited twice already, the most delicious pizza I have ever tasted in my life! And I don't think I have missed out on gelato a single day of the trip! We have hit up every gelato store in Florence (even Ben and Jerry's, we don't discriminate!!! Har har...) We have had a lot of fun at the leather and Christmas markets and we visited a meat market with some very interesting sights....? The weather has been mostly rainy but occasionally we get lucky and have nice weather for a few minutes. Last night we reveled in the warmth and dryness and wandered around the Ponte Vecchio for a while, taking some amazing pictures. I am looking forward to scrap booking! Tonight after dinner we stumbled across a tree lighting ceremony in the Piazza of the Duomo! There was a marching band with some feather-clad men throwing flags around, then they turned the lights on on the giant tree. I feel truly lucky to have witnessed it. The hotel here is so great, I hate to leave it! We have made several friends from all over the world during our night time hang-outs in the lobby. I am thrilled to move on to Venice, but it symbolizes our trip coming to an end. I am looking forward to meeting up with my Italian "brother" when we are in Venice. He was an exchange student living with my family for a year a few years ago and I haven't seen him since. Ciao for now, see you in Venezia!

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