I must admit that I was somewhat underwhelmed when we got to Florence from Rome. Florence is a much smaller city, and there is far less to do there. However, it is the birthplace of the Renaissance and home of the best gelato in Italy. So, we ate gelato and checked out some art - most notably Michelangelo's David. There are several fake Davids around Florence, the biggest one where the original David stood for 300 years, but nothing quite prepared us for how breathtaking the original David was. David was extremely real - even the veins on his hand were sculpted! Also, David is the representation of the Renaissance man - symbolizing humanism, balance and beauty - and this definitely came across as we gawked at him. A photo of fake David can be found to the left - no pictures allowed by the real David. You can also check him out at The Digital Michelangelo Project, which was created by one of the CS labs at Stanford (my friend Jason worked there :)). Actually, a kiosk where you can play with the same visualizations can be found right next to David in Florence! Another wonderful thing about Florence was a bookstore called Paperback Exchange where you can exchange an old paperback for a discount on a new one, and they gave me far more for my book than Half Price Books in Seattle ever has.Anyway, we spent a happy couple of days in Florence (our hotel had free wi-fi :)) before heading to Venice. Venice is magical. The medieval houses lining the canals are so quaint. What I appreciated most about Venice, though, was how pedestrian friendly it was. No cars allowed (actually, I don't think we saw a single bicycle either). The roads are five to eight feet wide - just wide enough to walk. It's harder if you have any sort of wheels (strollers, wheeled suitcases, etc.) as one needs to climb up and down several bridges. Once we were done with all the tourist sites that we wanted to do (we have started avoiding churches and museums unless they have something spectacular) and had even done our laundry, we decided to check out a couple of other islands around Venice. Murano is where all the glass factories are - so we watched some glass-blowers at work and checked out hand-made chandeliers that we can't afford. Then we headed to Burano, which is so much calmer than Venice. In Burano, we found lace and cut-work products, extremely colorful houses ... and Coca-cola flavored gelato (it really did taste like Coke).
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We ended our Venetian trip with a concert featuring Vivaldi's compositions as Vivaldi is probably Venice's most famous artist. The group we watched is called Interpreti Veneziani, and they were extremely good - at the end of the show, the audience was enthusiastic enough that the musicians played two encores :) The concert was at a beautiful church, and that definitely helped add to the atmosphere. I even got to chat with one of the cellists in broken English and Italian while I waited in line to use the restroom - he was telling people to go back to their seats after the intermission, but communicated that I should stay and use the restroom. As I waited, we talked about the weather, and I tried to tell him just how much I was enjoying the evening.
Next stop, London! We are currently at the airport waiting to board our flight (although by the time I post this, we will probably be in London). The airport is crazy. The line to check in was ridiculous - trains are definitely the way to go around here. I'm really looking forward to the next few days - we get to see Yesh and Pat soon, and watch Wimbledon this weekend. Yay!
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