Florence

Sometimes major cultural tourist attractions don't live up to their hype once you see them. The Mona Lisa might be an example. But Florence, jam-packed with major Renaissance stuff, delivers.

Michelangelo's David, in the Academia gallery (a copy is outside the Palazzo Vecchio, pic at right) merits the overused word 'awesome.' So does the Duomo (see post below).

But that was just the start. There was Botticellis' Birth of Venus, Michelangelo's last Pieta (he worked on it in his 80's), the tombs of Michelangelo and Galileo, the frescoes of the friar Fra Angelico, and the execution site of another (more controversial) friar, Savonarola. Maybe if Savonarola had been a little less judgmental, he would have had a wonderful liquor named after him, too.

We also sought relief now and again from all the high culture. We spent an hour in an incredible perfumery (Farmicia de Santa Maria Novella) trying all kinds of different scents, and we also found what we think is the best gelato in Italy, at a place called "Grom." Maybe our favorite experience of all, though, was eating at a little sandwich shop where you stand in the street and can place your glass of wine on a rack nailed right to the outside wall.

From Florence we took a pretty quick train ride to Rome.