We boarded a 10 am bus for our day trip to Siena - home of the famous Palio horseraces and St. Catherine (parts of her are still there!). It was a little cooler today even though we went south for about an hour and a half. Our first stop in Siena was San Domenica Church were we saw Catherine's mummified thumb and head! There were swarms of people in the beautiful Piazza Campo and we joined right in. The catheral (aka The Duomo) was glowing in the Italian sunshine with it's new face lift (it was under scaffleling when I was here in February). Inside the "zebra-striped" marble columns and the inlaid marble floors telling stories of the Bible were amazing. Tried some ribollita for lunch (a thick bean and bread soup) and it was just right! A winding walk through the steep streets took us back to the bus station for our ride back to Florence. The bus filled up quickly and some folks were left standing on the sidewalk - but we made it! Celebrated Bobbie Acker's birthday today! More later!
I HAVE SET UP A NEW PHOTOBLOG SITE FOR THE 2014 TOURS. YOU CAN STILL SEE PHOTOS FROM 2008 TO 2013 HERE. TO VIEW THE LATEST TOURS GO TO: WWW.INTUSCANYWITHPATRIZIA.BLOGSPOT.COM
Giro de Uffizi Museo! Tour of the Uffizi Museum
Today began with me meeting Joe and Marty Loughlin, their daugher Katie and friend Martha at the train station for their one-dayvisit to Florence. They are seeing "all of Italy" and are staying in a countryside villa nearby this week. Walking them around on a short tour was fun and then it was time to meet my group for a tour of some fine art. A little background info here - the Medici family were the richest folks around here for about 300 years and they collected a lot of high dollar art! Michelangelo was practically adopted into the family and he did a lot of painting for them as did many other most famous artists. Anyway, most of this great art is now on display at the Uffizi Museum and we saw it today! By the way - Uffizi means "office" in Italian and this huge building was the "Medici office building" during their lifetimes and later converted to the museum. After downing a strong cup of expresso to keep on going, we caught a bus and headed up to Piazza Michelangelo to see the view from above and yet another "David"! This one was bronze - turned green - from long years out in the open, but just as giant as the original in the Accademia we saw yesterday. Then it was back home and out to a "caffeteria" for supper. Another interesting day in Italy! More later!