A FIVE day weekend in Florence, Italy!

Wow!!! Where do I begin?? ITALY! I had the most terrific

tour guide (and I'm sure the cheapest!!)....my roommate, Marcia! She has been to Italy several times and knew all the hot spots to hit and the most wonderful place to stay!



We stayed in a little B&B right in the heart of
the city and loved it! Our view looked out across
the plaza to the Baptistery, the Brunelleschi's Dome
and the cobblestone streets! It was on the fourth floor
so we had 64 steps to go up and down each trip,
but it was well worth it and great exercise!! :)

Sixty-four steps UP!

An amazing view of the courtyard!

 Hello from Italy!

 Marcia and I are watching a movie she downloaded tonight called, "A Room With A View". Lots of scenes from Florence!!

We arrived about 9pm on Wed. We dropped off our belongings, I checked out our wonderful view (Windows have always been THE most important thing I look at in a room I will be sleeping in!) and then headed off to find a good meal. All of the food was delicious in Italy and the wine was lovely too! It's hard to find good pasta meals, gelato, wine and chocolate in Morocco!

The next couple of days we did lots of sight seeing, walking, climbing steps, eating, drinking and laughing! We had a wonderful five day weekend. And the best thing is.....we teach for two days and then we are off to Paris for five days!! I can't believe I have always wanted to see all of these places and never have gotten the chance, then in one month I see Spain, Italy and France!!!! I am enjoying every opportunity and feeling very blessed.

This was the view out our window! Brunelleschi's Dome was just magnificent inside and out! It rained most of the weekend, but the colors outside my window were gorgeous every time I looked outside. The rain didn't damper our walks and even added to the beautiful reflections on the cobblestone.

 There were artists were everywhere!  Painting the beauty all around them.

 Even the gelato flavors looked like an artist's pallet.....piled high, all the  various colors and flavors

 The night lights and rain were just beautiful on the plaza!

It was fun to see Christmas all aroung us! Another thing we were missing in Morocco.

 These two photos were also from looking out our window. Our last morning we woke at 8am so we could walk up the 465 steps to the top of the dome and were rewarded with an amazing view! The top photo is the painting at the top of the dome.

 This one is for you, Lora! Love it!

After we saw the Michelangelo's David, we went to see San Marco.



It was filled with small rooms that the monks lived in. They were very simple, quaint rooms that they stayed in and painted a scene from Jesus' life. The fresco's were all very impressive.

Add caption

The Bibles and Song Books that the monks worked on were beautiful! The time it must have taken....
The precise work the produced..... truly amazing!

Like all the other cities we have visited....the motorcycles were fun to photograph!

 Next, Marcia took me to a paper making shop that does marbling. I got a chance to work on a piece myself....well, with the help of this gentleman! It was a lot of fun!

Here is my finished piece! Thank you Marcia...what a fun
experience!

Here

 Florence on a rainy night.....BEAUTIFUL!

Well, I'm off to do lesson plans for the next two weeks and the next three weeks following Thanksgiving. Then Christmas will be here and my three kids will be arriving! It doesn't get any better than that!