Florence

From our Tuscan home-away-from-home, we took a short bus ride to the center of the Renaissance city of Florence.  Dave led us on an orientation walk pointing out the highlights while explaining how the city came to be.  The walk would take us from the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore to the Uffizi Gallery before venturing off to do some shopping.

The bronze doors of the Baptistry (or as Michelangelo called them: "the gates of paradise".

The cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore covered with beautiful pink, green and white marble.

The courtyard of the Uffizi gallery is filled with statues created by famous artists like Michelangelo and Leonardo deVinci.  The statue of "David" located at the left of the entrance is not the original.  (We did get to see the original "David" in the Accademia museum).

Steve insisted that we include this picture in our scrapbook because it includes his favorite statue.

A special treat once inside the Uffizi gallery is the spectacular view from it's windows of the nearby Ponte Veccio bridge. 

After our visit to the Uffizi we set off on our own to the market at San Lorenzo to look for some bargains before leaving. 

On our way back to our Tuscan hideaway we stopped at a most perfect place to enjoy a most scenic view of the city the and to capture these new memories with pictures.

Don & Julie, Mike & Kay, Gene and Barbara.

From left to right:

Front Row: Sandy, Dave, Rachel, Bryan & Pete

Second row: Stu, John, Jennifer, Barbara, Karen, Terry, Joe, Rhoda, Lorna, Kay, Mike, Debby & Pete

Third row: Middie, Don, Gene, John, Jason, Steve, Don, Julie, Richard & Bob 

Joe & Terry, Bryan & Rachel, Steve & Karen.

Italy

France 

 

Switzerland

 

Austria 

 

Italy 

 

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