Isn’t the room lovely?! And, this photo below is out our window looking out on the Palazio.

After quickly changing and running out the door to SHOP, we decided that we’d have an early dinner and get up early to explore the City. We’ve both been to the major highlights of Florence on previous trips but it had been a while for both of us since seeing Michelangelo’s David. We ventured around the corner that morning to the Academia – no lines, very few tourists and only a few groups of children out for their "field trip" to see the David and the other treasures to be found in the Academia. It is an unbelievable sight no matter how many times you see it and so beautiful in person!

After seeing the David, we were heading to the Medici Chapel in San Lorenzo church but got sidetracked along the way to – yes, buy some shoes. Actually, that tends to be our day itinerary: see some amazing piece of art or architecture, buy some shoes, see another piece of history, buy some shoes, eat, drink, nap and buy some shoes! We’ve decided that Italy, and especially Florence is the only place we’ve been where the men’s clothing and shoes stores out-number the women’s by 3 to 1 – a joy and pleasure for Walter!

This photo depicts the tomb for Cosmos I – Medici. There were at least six others like this in this one area – not a bad way to be remembered! It is just an amazing room when you turn the corner from entering the Medici Chapel and see this room – extremely ornate and just spectacular. The photo below captures the dome in the same room but does not do it justice given the brilliant colors and intricate work.

Still in the Medici Chapel and Walter was trying to capture the intricacy of the granite inlays.

On a walk over the Ponte Vecchio to one of our favorite streets to again shop for shoes and Walter captured this great view of the bridges crossing the Arno.

We still cannot get over the fact that there are just simply no tourists in Florence – here is Walter on the Point Vecchio, which is usually mobbed with tourists!

And, no day would be complete without stopping for a cappuccino and a pastry – no many to choose from so we just bought a bit of everything!

As we walked home that evening to change and venture our to dinner, it started to snow! It really was a delightful treat to walk past the Duomo in Florence with little flakes of snow dropping around us! Dinner was terrific! Got some sleep, did some more shopping and went to San Lorenzo again to see Michelangelo’s famous stairs to the Medici Library, shopping some more, a terrific two hour lunch a place owned by another restaurateur we befriended and to pick up our Hertz rental car to head to our rented home in Greve – 25 kilometers south of Florence. Of course, silly us, we took too long at lunch and found the Hertz office closes at 2:00 on Saturday! Whoops, no problem. We walked next door to Budget, got a similar rate and drove away in our Opel – a four-door vehicle this time – lots of room for our many pairs of shoes!