Our hotel here in Florence is great! The Hotel Universo is in a great location, one block away from the train station, comfortable and walking distance to everthing!
Last night on the way back to the hotel, in front of the Santa Maria Novella church.
Before we met up with everyone else this morning we headed out for a walk...
The Duomo - deserted, nice and quiet.
The East door of the Baptistry – Lorenzo Ghiberti’s celebrated doors were commissioned in 1401 to mark Florence’s deliverance from the plague. Michelangelo enthusiastically dubbed them the “Gate of Paradise”.
After looking through the windows, we went into the Bargello museum. Built in 1255 as the city’s town hall, the Bargello is the oldest seat of government surviving in Florence. And unfortunately we couldn’t take any photos inside…
In the 16th century it was the residence of the chief of police and a prison.
This is where they held the executions.
After meeting up with Gianni and Consiglia we stopped in for a quick cappuccino...
And one of these... Yummmmm!!
We have been taking pictures of things we want to incorporate into our house plans...how about a pair of these by the front door????
It's waffle time! Talk about happy campers!
Muskrat love on the Arno...
The Arno river with the Ponte Vecchio in the background...beautiful!
Kind of hard to see from this angle, but Stu called this the man's away room...it's seperate from the rest of the house, at the end of the terrace.
The Palazzo Pitti, begun in 1457, was originally built for the banker Luca Pitti. Its huge scale was developed into its actual shape by the Medici, who one century later bought the palazzo when building costs bankrupted Pitti’s heirs.
In 1550 it became the main Medici residence and subsequently all Florentine rulers lived here. Today the richly decorated rooms exhibit treasures from the Medici collections and the Habsburg-Lorraine court.
The Bacchus Fountain statue shows Cosimo I's court dwarf, as Bacchus, the Roman god of wine, astride a turtle.
A well earned break!
An evil looking lion fountain.
Time for lunch and vino!
This "car" is too cute and it's electric, they had a bunch of them plugged in!
But this one is my favorite!!
Dinner was fantastic, what a perfect name..."The Fools" and...
More ideas for the house...a great use for all those wine corks!!!
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