Home of David
We arrived in Florence around noon, saying goodbye to our fabulous bus driver. On the agenda was an orientation walk through Florence and a tour of the Accademia Gallery and to see David, the star attraction. Unfortunately, John had a cold and was so miserable that he had to go back to the hotel so he missed David. I was especially sorry he missed Michelangelo's unfinished Prisoners. As much as I loved seeing David, I found those unfinished works haunting and strangely contemporary.
The next morning was our tour of the Uffizi. Local guide Cindy walked us through the gallery explaining the important works collected there by the Medici family. We took our group picture on the rooftop terrace. Then in the evening was our last supper of the tour. The dinner featured a wine tasting from Cecilia's family vineyards. It was a perfect meal to end a wonderful tour. And to thank Cecilia for being such a great guide, we sang her a song written by one of the tour members. I'm pretty sure she enjoyed it. The next morning at breakfast we bid our friends sad goodbyes; however, we were staying at the hotel for a couple more nights. With no more set schedule, we took it easy (plus I had the cold at that point) and spent the last couple of days just wandering the city. We did have a couple of missions: find red leather gloves for John's sister and a leather jacket for John. I'm happy to say we completed those tasks (plus gloves and a jacket for me). Otherwise, we enjoyed our walkabouts, poking our noses in little shops and stopping for the occasional glass of wine. Our last night we joined Pam and Guy, two more holdovers from the tour, for wine on the top of the hotel's tower followed by dinner. It was a magnificent evening which made the prospect of heading back to Rome the next day rather sad. Highlights:
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