Our last day in Flo

We woke up early! We had lots to do. Our apartment was next door to the Medici Chapel which opened at 815. The most important people from the Medici family are buried there. The chapel was designed and created by Michelangelo. He was like a second son to the patriarch Cosimo so they entrusted him to create their eternal resting place. It's over the top. The chapel is dark marble (and many other precious stones). The themes are more classical Greek than biblical. The chapel is definitely an homage to power not an homage to God. From there, we went across the river to the Pitti Palace and Boboli gardens. Like many places, I can't remember visiting.. but I might have. It's an enormous palace a la Versailles again owned by the Medici. The Boboli gardens were not so much gardens as a landscaped park. There was a great view of the city although you can't really see it because it started to rain while we there.

As we wandered around, I realized I could not take in much more Renaissance art. The garden had very little so it was a good break. We returned to our neighborhood to our favorite Italian place. It was from a movie really. We ate there three days out of six. It's family-owned, great food, and everyone knew us. The woman who bussed the tables spoke Spanish so it was fun to feel proficient in a foreign language again.

We were tired but we pressed on. We headed to Dante's house (meh but Dante's work basically narrates all of the art in the city) and then the Bargello. I remember the Bargello well. I must have gone many times. In the 13th and 14th centuries, it was the Town Hall. It has a della Robbia room which I loved and also Donatello's David which I was always underwhelmed by because Michelangelo's is so much more striking. However, reading the description, Donatello's was the first nude to be sculpted since the Greeks were doing it. At the time, the statue blew everyone's mind and started the Renaissance.

And that was it for museums. Phew. I couldn't take in anymore. We rested at home then went out to the very hip (and close) Central Market.  It's an old open market space where they turned the 3rd floor into a hipster food court. 

We woke up early because we needed to get on a 745am bus in order to get to Pisa by 930am. We get to the station and buy our bus tickets only to be told the 745 bus wouldn't be running because there weren't enough people and the next bus was 810. We were really irritated. It's an airport bus. People need to be somewhere. Italy has changed A LOT in 20 years but they still don't pay attention to schedules. Annoying! I reminded Sarah that Rick Steves tells us to be flexible. Luckily, we'd purchased flight insurance just for this very problem so we didn't have to worry too much about missing our flight.  Italy! 

We made our flight though. The great thing about the Italians is that they are casual so the ticketing/gate folks didn't mind that we were late. We were the last ones on the plane but still made time to take a photo.

Welcome to London!