It's

10:00 p.m. Rome time. We just returned home about twenty minutes ago from Florence. Florence was something else, let me tell you, and it was almost too much for my sister, her son, and her daughter-in-law to handle. We went to the Uffizi Museum yesterday, and there was so much walking and climbing, both my nephew's wife and Pat, who is my sister, had had it. We actually walked past the room where the famous The Birth of Venus as well as a couple of Da Vinci paintings were. The reason was because the nephew's wife said there were too many "religious" paintings there, which I found hilarious because, after all it is Italy, and in Florence, the art museums tend to have work that has come from churches around the region.

So by the time we ended the tour around Room 50 or 55, the two were ready to go home. My nephew, who like myself likes to go to museums, was ready to leave, but I nudged him back because I wanted to see The Birth of Venus myself. We retraced our steps back to Rooms 10-14, which at that point we realized those were the rooms we skipped. We saw that painting as well as some other works by Botticelli, if I have his name right at this time of night. I was glad we did it.

However, this morning, even my nephew was too pooped to visit the museums around the giant cathedral including the Accademia dell'Arte del Disegno, which houses the legendary David statue. Well, it was decided among the four of us that I would go to the museums while the rest of them went shopping. So for six hours I did it. The Accademia was just a couple of blocks from the hotel we were staying, and I got there when it opened at 8:30. Instead of having a bunch of stairs to climb, as in the Uffizi, almost all of the important works of art were on the bottom floor. I went to the room where the statue of David was, and I just couldn't believe it. Goliath was more like it, for the statue must be at least thirty feet high including the pedestal. It is huge. I was at this particular museum for about two hours going through all of the rooms, but I'll bet I stared at that statue for at least a half hour. What a sight to behold.

After going through the museum and buying stuff at the bookstore, I headed to Museo dell'Opera and managed even to photograph another famous Michelangelo sculpture, Pietà, not to be confused with the one over at the Vatican. I also went to a couple of churches and the archaeological museum there, but I didn't go into the giant cathedral, which is so huge one cannot photograph the entire thing in a single picture.

I bought a few more books that I will have to somehow lug to the airport early Tuesday, but I enjoyed the day tremendously.

Tomorrow is supposed to be an easy day, so I might be able to blog more then.