Day 7 Florence

Today we began in Florence....well, we began with Leigh shutting our guide in the door of our revolving door of our hotel in Florence, but in Florence none-the-less! She recovered quickly, both the guide and Leigh, and we were on our way. Florence was much more crowded than we expected but still full of history and much architecture and beautiful statues throughout town. I think that is one of the most unexpected things is you will be walking down the street and an amazing statue sculpted by Michelangelo or Rafael is on the street of Florence in the middle of town. We did go in the Acadamie Museo (Academy Museum) which is the home of Michelangelo's "David" and some other unfinished works of his. Those literally stopped us in our tracks. So hard to believe these things we have seen in books and read about for all of the years were within feet of us. We could have reached out and touched them. That is another thing that is so different from the States, there are no alarms or guards watching your every move. You could touch his unfinished works, and while it is discouraged, there is noone there to stop you. Dad wouldn't have gotten thrown out like he did in the Guggenheim!
After our tour we walked around and looked in the shops for a bit before catching the train to Venice. We arrived here this evening, took a water taxi to our hotel (so cool), and immediately went to dinner. We were tired of forcing ourselves to wait until 9:00 to eat. It was 7:30 and we were hungry! So we were the only people in a restaurant but, we ate outside by ourselves in a garden of an old monastery and it was delicious. We are back at the hotel, ready for bed, and actually missing the good 'ol USA! Italy has so much history, art, and amazing food to offer, but it is missing the creature comforts of home that we have grown to love. I'm sure we will have a beautiful time in Venice tomorrow before we catch the train back to Rome. We will fill you in before our flight back on Thursday...don't get us wrong, we will be sad to leave Italy but will be kissing the American soil we land on as well.
Hope you all are doing well. We feel so out of touch with all but look forward to talking to you all soon! Much love...