wednesday and thursday

museums, museums, museums!!!

wednesday we went to the Uffizi and aside from wandering around another cool old building the thing i remember most are the Botticelli paintings which are quite beautiful! I could have sat there all day staring at them...well, aside from the tour groups that come in and plant themselves directly in front of each painting and totally block your view. I couldn't take pictures at the Uffizi so you'll just have to take my word for it- beautiful!

That morning and the next we did a bit of shopping damage around town. Going back to get things that had caught our eye or going back to shops that had been closed but looked interesting. Florence is full of amazing shops to buy fantastic things and that doesn't even count all the typical high end designer shops that hold a little less allure.

here's our yummy lunch from tuesday clynne put together.

here's a mini street sweeper that prolly swept our street 50 times a day- Florence is spotless.and here's the view from my bedroom window towards the Arno river at sunset.

Wednesday more chasing around town in the morning- one last sandwich from Nerbone!

ah the Bollito meat..so delicious.

then we went to a chocolate festival! that's right a whole festival devoted to all the chocolate that they make in Italy as well as a few vendors from Spain and other parts of Europe. oh my gosh! i think i bought as much as i had euro's in my pocket!see! chocolate!!!

after the chocolate festival we went to The Pitti Palace and also wandered around The Bobili Garden's. So pretty!!! The Pitti Palace is giant! So many different exhibits- I tried to see them all and failed so I gues I'll have to go back...yeah twist my arm...!
we did manage to get inside to see the Grotto which is this side building at The Bobili Gardens filled with these figures composed almost entirely out of pieces of rocks and stalactite..all goopy and drippy. so weird but so good!

whoo! and after all that...i think there might have been a nap or at least some time staring blankly at Italian MTV we went to dinner at this amazing restaurant!!! Pan E Vino.
It was semi fancy and so good! This is a picture of my Parmesan Flan with Aged Balsamic vinegar served in a eye dropper. Each bite of flan with a drop of balsamic vinegar was soooo good. check out my flickr for more food pics of that dinner. it was delish!

Tomorrow Venice!!! yep, that's right, another city? can you believe it??? onwards we went to Venice.