Today after another buffet spread that rivals the best ..... We set out on a walking tour staring at 8:45 over to the Uffizi gallery. Tauck hires local guides that give you tours of major sites. The tour director can give us history background anywhere on the bus or in the hotel but not at the sites as they scan badges of certified tour guides. Just trying to make sure history stays the same in each tour.
The guides have all been friendly and very personable along with some humor thrown in. One thing I have noticed is the comments made about the generosity of America through such groups as Knights of Columbus for the Vatican. Franco, guide at the Vatican, said you Americans gave money for the air conditioning. It is good.... It is too good but we are very grateful.
The woman who guided us today talked about the art treasures and those that were stolen by the Nazis ( Monument Men) and how some countries returned the works to Italy when the war was over and some did not. She said the country was grateful for the return of art treasures when found and return. She also mentioned the great gift of treasure.... That of a generation of American men who fought in WWII for freedom for Italy and all the world. She was very gracious and sincere.
Anyway on with the show. The Uffizi was originally built as a suite of offices in 1581. It was first used to display the Medici's ( pronounced med-itch-chee) family private art treasures, making it the oldest art gallery in the world . It's huge collection included some of the most revered works of the Italian Renaissance , such as Botticelli's Birth of Venus, Michelangelo's The Holy Family , da Vinci's unfinished Adoration of the Magi, Bellini's Allegory and Raphael's Madonna of the Goldfinch. You remember all those , don't you?
After that hour and a half tour, we were set loose on the city of Florence with maps, lists showing the plaza streets with people and crazy drivers. After grabbing a gelato , we walked back to our room and crashed in the air-conditioned room. It was now 2 o'clock. We had the rest of the day and evening to ourself.
For dinner we went back to a restaurant MaSo we loved the first night we were there. Wonderful food and only 1 course with a salad instead of 4 courses.
Tomorrow we plan to get to the little church across the street for mass at 8. Then today we will be moving into Venice via 2 hour train and then the transfer via boat ride to Venice itself. Till then......
I am laughing because we did the same thing on our free afternoon in Florence - took a nap....It sounds like you have this European touring thing down pat... love the scarf, Char - great colors! We also went to the same church for Mass...the homily in Italian rivaled some of the homilies back in the Brook in terms of putting me to sleep : ). Have fun in Venice.....O solo mia!!!!
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