Highlights: 1.To café for coffee/breakfast; 2. family arrives from the States; 3. hang out; 4. Laundromat (loved being able to communicate in Italian); 5. Speaking more Italian here; 6. Gelato; walk around a bit with family; apartment w/ terraces

Our family arrived safe and sound…the fun begins!! We mainly just relaxed today. We had a lot of laundry to take care of, and given the minimal situation we have to do laundry at our apartment we elected to take a couple of loads to a local Laundromat. We could not find a ‘do-it-yourself’ place, so we dropped our clothes off at a place that did it for us. Expensive? A little, but also convenient and a relief! The best part was being able to communicate with the owner, who only spoke Italian, and understanding her/her understanding us!!! Those Italian lessons paid off after all!!!

There are 13 of us here now, so we have rented two apartments. We are in the smaller apartment with my parents; everyone else is in the larger apartment about 15 minutes walk from here. That one overlooks the Coliseum, and there are 2 terraces there (one on the top of the building with 360 degree views). It is an incredible spot to enjoy the scenery, have a glass of wine and relax with the family.

Highlights: 1.left Firenze after breakfast for Roma 2. Side ‘trip’ to Pisa…only got to view the tower and got 39 euro parking ticket* 3.arrived at apartment in Roma…no good bed yet again!** 4. Dinner at place right around the corner – more touristy…so-so. 5. Family arrives tomorrow!!!

*Pisa: We arrived, hoping to go up into the tower to the top. There was a two-hour wait to go up, and we had to be in Roma to check into the apartment by 5, so no time for that…disappointing. Our lovely gentlemen in the parking lot neglected to tell us we had to pre-pay for parking and put the ticket in our windshield, so our 1 hour visit to Pisa resulted in a 39 euro parking expense. Nice…

**Roman holiday today – St. Paul’s Day – meaning no traffic in the city, so no problem getting to the apartment. The apartment is nice: two bedrooms, two baths (one with a narrow shower!). The water pressure is so-so, but we also have A/C – a must here in summer! And it works: another plus. The washing machine is small and located out on the balcony in cramped quarters. We only seem to be able to use the 4 hour wash cycle. No dryer here…and the clothes line is conveniently (cough, cough) located under the A/C where condensation can drip on the clothes in the right conditions. But really we are in a good location. Other downside: these European beds…what’s up with them? With all of this incredible architecture here they cannot figure out how to get comfort into a bed?? Really??? I miss my bed….

This morning I enjoyed a quiet cup (ok…two cups) of cappuccino at a café across from our hotel. The woman there – the owner, I assume – was so friendly. I loved sitting there watching the people stroll by…some tourists, some locals. It was early enough that the city’s routine workers were starting their daily activities. Trash pick-up is obviously first thing Tuesday morning, shops received deliveries of food and other goods, and there were workers setting up scaffolding to work on restorations of the historical buildings. It was a nice slice of Florentine life, mixed in with a bit of tourist life…but mostly I enjoyed the solitude from my family.

My husband and I toured Il Duomo (only 2 minutes walk from our hotel) in the morning, walking the 154 steps up to the dome, and then continuing up the additional 300+ steps to the very top. Stunning views from here!! Rather than wait in the looooong line to enter the church, we elected to pay for the guided tour. It was a deal and saved so much time. Plus, we were able to see parts of the dome and church only open to those doing the tour. I highly recommend it.

We grabbed a quick bite to eat before meeting up with a guide (Marco Secci) to tour the Uffici museum, a 2 minute walk in the other direction from our hotel, then headed to see ‘David’ after that…amazing! Our guide was one of the best we have encountered. I made sure to get his business card so we can use him again when we go back to Florence. And yes, we do plan to return one day to see all the things we didn’t get a chance to visit.

Marco suggested yet another local place for dinner; also right around the corner from our hotel (I should mention we had a phenomenal hotel location!). After dinner we headed on a walk past Ponte Vecchio to one of the De Medici castles open for a late-night visit. My husband and I toured for a bit…amazing to see how grand some folks lived! It was a nice night and we enjoyed our walk back through town to the hotel. Florence is a beautiful city, well worth the visit. Hopefully we will have the opportunity to return.

Today was more of a recovery day…we took it easy, strolling around Florence’s street markets and checking out the historical buildings/landmarks. We had lunch atop a restaurant overlooking Ponte Vecchio, and then we walked a bit more in the afternoon. It was nice to have a low-key day to unwind from all of the constant activity we had been experiencing.

We were directed to a different restaurant for dinner – another typical Florence-style eatery. Our waiter was phenomenal and funny, patient with us as we practiced speaking our minimal Italian. At the end of dinner a man popped into the restaurant dressed in renaissance attire and recited a portion of Dante’s ‘Inferno’ (in Italian of course). It was quite beautiful and was a fabulous way to end the meal!!