June 5, 2011 - Florence

Laura woke up feeling sick.  We went to church at Santa Croce church.  Very pretty, huge ceilings, mass was said in Italian, hard seats and kneelers, scaffolding from rennovation blocked most of altar.  Laura went back to hotel.  Mark went to orenmichele chapel, got pizza then headed back to share and get Laura.  Went to baptistery of duomo - very neat bronze doors and painted ceiling was awesome.  Then went to medici chapels - very neat, but had major scaffolding blocking part of exhibit.  Went back to hotel for bathroom break.  Went on Rick steve's Renaissance walk - by Medici palace, then duomo - went in duomo and bought a scarf from street vendor while in line.  then showed Laura the orenmichele church on way through courtyard of uffizi museum.  Stopped to admire the copy of David statue and others.  Then on to ponte vecchio bridge over the Arno river - bunch of gold and silver stores.  Across that to look at the pitti palace.  They had white tents in front for wine tasting.  Mark did the wine tasting for ten euros, got to keep the wine glass.  Almost done, it started pouring, then thunderstorms.  They let us behind the counter in the white tent.  Started hailing.  Stayed almost two hours in tent until rain slowed.  Went to chic restaurant nearby that looked pricey and weird food, so went to hotel to put dry clothes on and then to cafe nearby.  We found a good little Italian cafe with good prices too.  We were the only table sat due to the rain, but soon after it was full.  Laura's salad had a funny taste, so they brought her a great pasta instead.  We befriended the older woman from Australia dining alone next to us.