Thank Goodness for Slingbox: Florence / Siena

Back in the Spring, I had the tough assignment to go work in Milan for the week. So, being one of the fashion capitals of the world, I sensibly decided to leave my wife safely at home and without credit cards and went by myself.

OK, not exactly true, but I was smart enough to go to a cash-basis only! Anyway, we had previously travelled to Milan in the Fall, which you can see in a previous blog posting, and we didn't really see much in the way of new or exciting things this time around to add. The greatest benefit of all was being able to drive down to Florence and Siena Friday afternoon, and that is the subject of this post.

In the picture above you see the iconic image of the famous cathedral, The Duomo, that towers over this city. The picture below is a little closer and was taken from our hotel doorway! Good job on the hotel, honey!

You probably are already aware that Florence was one of the primary cities of the Italian Renaissance. The Duomo is a symbol of man's renewed confidence as they incorporated a space for the dome in the blueprints for this cathedral before they even had the mathematical ability to build a dome this big! Their confidence was well-placed.....even if it took them 600 years after the cathedral was built to actually complete the dome. Today, it is still the largest brick and mortar dome in the world.

Here are a few more pictures of the cathedral.

Here you can see the bell tower beside the cathedral.

Ashley, taking over the post:

Below, you can see the illicit photo that Jonathan managed to take of Michaelangelo's David. Formerly, this statue was outdoors, but pollution and pigeons were taking a toll, so they moved it into the Uffizi and put a copy outside. I think you can see fairly easily that the original is a masterpiece, even with our somewhat shaky picture. Technically, the Uffizi gallery has restrictions on the number of visitors who can be in the gallery at any time. However, after having an amazing lunch in a little tiny deli (no pictures allowed, sadly), Jonathan and I decided to just drop by the Uffizi and SEE if we could get in. We were not expecting much, since the line for the Accademia was around the block. But we got incredibly lucky. We actually walked in. While J thought the David was the highlight of the trip *and it was, of course, I was also impressed with the musical instrument display inside the museum-- Stadivarius cello, anyone? Very cool.