Olen was late to breakfast this morning because he was in the room checking his e-mail. When he got to the table, the girls and I had all finished, so we had plenty of advice for Olen regarding his food choices.
“I recommend the toast. The bread and toaster are over there…”
“The strawberry jelly is great…”
“Why are you cutting your toast…”
“Why didn’t you eat all of your banana…”
“No napkins. We already checked…”
“You didn’t leave your toast in long enough did you…”
Finally Olen looked exasperated, and muttered, “Just what I need…four women telling me how to eat.” We tried to let him make more of his own decisions as the day went on.
We were at the San Lorenzo Market early enough to see most of the open-air merchants begin to set up their booths for the day. Then we walked past the Duomo to Piazza Signoria where Olen pointed out the marker in the pavement showing where Savanarola was burned to death. We saw the Neptune Fountain and a real-size copy of the famous “David” statue. (Which, incidentally, is impossible to photograph and maintain a “G“ rating.)
In a loggia on the piazza there were several statues of famous artwork. Immediately, Emily recognized Medusa since she had done a report for school on Medusa.
Not to be outdone, Kara recognized the Hercules and Centaur statue…probably from Disney. 
We walked by the Uffizi Gallery (closed on Mondays) and noticed many of the statues of famous artists and thinkers of the past that lined the walkway.
Then, a real, live Leonardo da Vinci appeared on the scene. Of course he was actually a mime, dressed to match the statue of Leonardo in the area. We thought he did an excellent job of reproducing the statue.
We walked across the Pointe Vecchio. Pointe Vecchio has been getting the people of Florence across the Arno River since it was built in 1345, and is the oldest surviving bridge in Florence.
Our next stop was in the Santa Croce church and a visit to the burial sites of Galileo, Marconi, Fermi, and Michaelangelo, to name a few. Since it was almost noon, we decided to have lunch at Boccadama, which is an excellent truly Italian restaurant located right on the piazza in front of the church. It was a wonderful opportunity to eat in the open-air setting with a view of the church building. The spaghetti and lasagna were wonderful and abundant, as was the bread they served with it.
Over lunch we gave the girls a choice…either spend the afternoon milling around Florence leisurely and shopping, or taking a train to the town of Pisa to see that famous tower. The trip won hands down. (Didn’t I tell you these girls have become real travelers?) So, after we finished our feast, we went to the train station and bought round-trip tickets to Pisa, which is located about an hour from Florence by train.
In Pisa we did all of the embarrassingly-touristy things. We each posed “holding up” the tower, took photos, and bought tee shirts. Went there…did that…bought the tee shirt. Leaning Tower of Pisa…check
Back to the train station for our ride back to Florence. The girls have learned to read train schedules, locate correct platforms, and how to stamp their tickets themselves. I told them with this knowledge of the train system, they could ride all over Europe…and they said they were ready to go! However, travelers do have to rest occasionally, and all three of the girls slept on the train ride back to Florence.
We went to the Duomo when we got back, to take photos in the afternoon sunlight. From there we all agreed that a good old Subway sandwich would be good for supper, and we remembered that we had passed one in that area yesterday. We located it, and did enjoy that for a change. Of course we had to make the now-routine after-dinner stop for gelato before returning to our hotel for the night.
What can I say? It was another perfect day with beautiful weather. We have been so blessed with good weather. The girls are doing a super job of rolling with the punches. They go along with anything we suggest and absolutely no whining.
Tomorrow maybe we will let Olen make his own food choices without female direction…maybe…or maybe not.
“I recommend the toast. The bread and toaster are over there…”
“The strawberry jelly is great…”
“Why are you cutting your toast…”
“Why didn’t you eat all of your banana…”
“No napkins. We already checked…”
“You didn’t leave your toast in long enough did you…”
Finally Olen looked exasperated, and muttered, “Just what I need…four women telling me how to eat.” We tried to let him make more of his own decisions as the day went on.
We were at the San Lorenzo Market early enough to see most of the open-air merchants begin to set up their booths for the day. Then we walked past the Duomo to Piazza Signoria where Olen pointed out the marker in the pavement showing where Savanarola was burned to death. We saw the Neptune Fountain and a real-size copy of the famous “David” statue. (Which, incidentally, is impossible to photograph and maintain a “G“ rating.)
In a loggia on the piazza there were several statues of famous artwork. Immediately, Emily recognized Medusa since she had done a report for school on Medusa.
Not to be outdone, Kara recognized the Hercules and Centaur statue…probably from Disney. We walked by the Uffizi Gallery (closed on Mondays) and noticed many of the statues of famous artists and thinkers of the past that lined the walkway.Then, a real, live Leonardo da Vinci appeared on the scene. Of course he was actually a mime, dressed to match the statue of Leonardo in the area. We thought he did an excellent job of reproducing the statue.
We walked across the Pointe Vecchio. Pointe Vecchio has been getting the people of Florence across the Arno River since it was built in 1345, and is the oldest surviving bridge in Florence.
Our next stop was in the Santa Croce church and a visit to the burial sites of Galileo, Marconi, Fermi, and Michaelangelo, to name a few. Since it was almost noon, we decided to have lunch at Boccadama, which is an excellent truly Italian restaurant located right on the piazza in front of the church. It was a wonderful opportunity to eat in the open-air setting with a view of the church building. The spaghetti and lasagna were wonderful and abundant, as was the bread they served with it.
Over lunch we gave the girls a choice…either spend the afternoon milling around Florence leisurely and shopping, or taking a train to the town of Pisa to see that famous tower. The trip won hands down. (Didn’t I tell you these girls have become real travelers?) So, after we finished our feast, we went to the train station and bought round-trip tickets to Pisa, which is located about an hour from Florence by train.
In Pisa we did all of the embarrassingly-touristy things. We each posed “holding up” the tower, took photos, and bought tee shirts. Went there…did that…bought the tee shirt. Leaning Tower of Pisa…check
Back to the train station for our ride back to Florence. The girls have learned to read train schedules, locate correct platforms, and how to stamp their tickets themselves. I told them with this knowledge of the train system, they could ride all over Europe…and they said they were ready to go! However, travelers do have to rest occasionally, and all three of the girls slept on the train ride back to Florence.
We went to the Duomo when we got back, to take photos in the afternoon sunlight. From there we all agreed that a good old Subway sandwich would be good for supper, and we remembered that we had passed one in that area yesterday. We located it, and did enjoy that for a change. Of course we had to make the now-routine after-dinner stop for gelato before returning to our hotel for the night.
What can I say? It was another perfect day with beautiful weather. We have been so blessed with good weather. The girls are doing a super job of rolling with the punches. They go along with anything we suggest and absolutely no whining.
Tomorrow maybe we will let Olen make his own food choices without female direction…maybe…or maybe not.
I know Barry's favorite thing to get at Subway is the Italian sub. I'm curious, though. In Italy, is it just called "The Sub?"
ReplyDeletelasagna, spaghetti, bread and ice cream? I couldn't walk enough to get rid of those calories!
ReplyDeleteyour food choices seem to include the daily gelato stop - i'm thinking it's a good thing :)
ReplyDelete