Left venice...on to Florence

I'm posting this a day late.  Yesterday (Tuesday) morning we left Venice to travel on to Florence.  After breakfast I took a walk before we left to see the city before it filled up with tourists from the cruise ships.  the morning is when the work gets done.  The stores and restaurants get supplies, the garbage gets picked up, and the street vendors all come out of the woodwork to start setting up again for a new day.  One thing I found surprising was the number of unleashed dogs in Venice.  Many were just allowed to roam free and seemed to stay out of trouble and everybody's way for the most part.  I saw one that was lying by a pile of trash that had not yet been picked up having himself a nice snack--a very cute dog and had a collar and tags.  I would be afraid Buddy would get dog-napped in similar circumstances.  I guess they just look at things differently here.

Anyway, the bus ride to Florence was nice, but also different than what we'd experienced so far.  Our driver, Hub (pronounced hoob), had to be more aggressive than previously.  The truck and bus drivers play a kind of cat and mouse game, jockeying for position in the heavy traffic.  Sure makes me glad I don't have to drive here!  Hub makes it look very easy and it seems like he knows every road in Europe; if he's gotten lost at all during this trip, none of us know it.

The Tuscan region is semi hilly and reminds me a bit of the Smoky Mountains at home, or maybe the Adirondaks.  The hills are large enough to be imposing, but not exactly awe-inspiring.  Overall it's a very pretty area and I can understand why people want to come back here for a longer stay.  There are a LOT of people in Florence, though, and bikes, scooters, cars, etc., which all adds up to a lot of chaos.  Somehow it all seems to work though.

Yesterday after a get-oriented walk, we went to the Academia and saw Michelangelo's David.   It is really a large statue--I had always envisioned it as a life-sized piece, but it must be 10 or 11 feet tall.  Our time at the Academia was very limited and we followed it up by a group dinner not too far from our hotel.  We started with a salad, then a pasta course (spinach ravioli in marinara sauce and nyokes in a white sauce with zuccini flowers), then beefsteak topped with lightly steamed arugula and rosemary roasted potatoes, finally followed by a dessert cart with about 8 choices on it.  I took the strawberry Teramisu (delicious) and finally managed to roll myself out and get back to the hotel.  I skipped out on a night walk Stephanie was going to lead because I was just too full and too tired.  To bed early last night and up early today.  This morning I'm going to go climb the 463 steps to the top of the Duomo for a bird's eye view of the city.  Ciao!