Florence - the flower of Italy

The last three days the Pavish's invaded Florence (Firenze) Italy. It is a beautiful city. There are teaming, narrow streets jam packed with pedestrians, bicyclists, motor cars, busses, Vespas, and motorcycles all vying for the same space on the roads. We saw many haute couture shops like Gucci, Chanel, and loads of others around Piazza delia Repubblica, one of the most expensive Piazzas in Italy.

We went to the Galleria degli Uffizi, and saw The Tribune, Botticelli's - Birth Of Venus, art work of Michelangelo, Leonardo di Vinci and many many others.

We experienced Michelangelo's David, and it really can't be described with words, at the Galleria deli Accademia. The Accademia houses thousands of religious art works from many artists over the centuries. I got entranced with looking at all the different faces of the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus. One of the displays explained that once a work was commissioned, the artist would use the mistress of the house as the face of the virgin or the patron as the face of Jesus. So there are many baby Jesus with the face of an old man. I really couldn't get over it.

Tomorrow morning we leave for Rome, which is a good thing because Florence kicked our butts and our pocketbooks! :0)

Venice

We made it to Venice!!! I didn't know before we got here that Venice is 115 separate islands and each one has it's own church, piazza, and well. That means Venice has more Roman catholic church per capita of any city. We were there for three full days, but you could easily do the city islands for a week on their own.

One thing we have noticed is Italy is very expensive!!! A Coke costs around $3.50-$4.00 each. Ice and air conditioning are rare also. Talk about cultural differences :0) Internet is also on the expensive side, so I'll try to post tomorrow. I'm exhausted and I need sleep :0)

July 4th, 2012 Ok...thanks God for good friends. My family and I are less than a day away from leaving on our trip to Italy. I was wondering how I would be able to do a barbecue and entertain people while my house is a mess with luggage, electronics, laundry and the millions of other items waiting to be packed for the trip. Then out of the blue, Sherri Fuller called and invited the my whole family to her place to celebrate the 4th of July. What a wonderful lady she is!

While in the midst of the trip prep, I noticed yesterday that my ancient cat, Pookie, is not eating or drinking. She is such a tiny thing anyway, that I am not sure she can survive a hunger strike for long. At 19 years old, she really is pretty amazing, and I worry about leaving her with the neighbors. I can't decide if she just knows we are getting ready to leave and showing her displeasure, or if she really has something wrong. I am putting this in God's hands and hoping for the best.

I haven't ever blogged from my iPhone, but I am going to try to do that on this trip, so I hope this works out. My next post should be from the airport tomorrow, as the Pavish Invasion of Italy begins.

ITALY HERE WE COME! David, the kids and I are less than 7 days out from our trip to Italy. This is my treat from the inheritance I received from my mom and dad. They loved Italy and now we are going to go as a family and see what exactly it was that mom and dad fell in love with.