Italy: Day Seven

Well, the Florence hotel's breakfast is totally unimpressive. I started my day with half of the world's driest roll And a not so good cup of coffee. There was nothing hot, no eggs, no decent juice... Boo! Clearly, then, I needn't mention the significant lack of chocolate cake...
But whatever. I have no time to spend complaining about the bunk breakfast when there is so much to report on what all we saw today!! We began our whirlwind twirl around Firenze at the Optificio delle Pietre Dure, which is a wacky little museum my sister discovered that is devoted solely to the craft of creating beautiful inlays with semiprecious stones. It was small and bizarre and completely unique and amazing! After that, we still had quite a while until our first pre-booked tour for the morning, so we weaves through the streets north to the Piazza Della Libertà. Which is just a couple of big ass arches. Truth be told, I'm pretty much over big ass arches at this point.
Then we headed back in the direction of our tour and popped into the Church of San Marco. Back in the day, the painter Fra Angelico lived in the convent there, which I thought was cool because I remembered that guy from art school. Mum put a euro into the offering box by a statue of Jesus and she and I both lit a candle for my friend, Lacey, who had a heavy duty doctor appointment today. Then we turned around and saw a statue of the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph and the baby Jesus. So we put another euro in the offering box and lit two more candles - this time for Lacey's unborn baby, who was the one getting the heavy duty doctor checkup today. We wanted to actually light the candles at the time she'd be in her appointment, but it just wasn't going to work out right... As we were then hanging around in this gorgeous church, Wendy came back over to me after wandering around and checking out whatever was off to the side of the main area. She sat down next to me and was totally quiet for several minutes and then just said: "There's another one of those dead bodies over there.". Something about the way she said it just made me crack up. And something about the fact that there ARE creepy, preserved dead bodies of various saints and whatnot in glass boxes in churches here... so weird!
After our little bit o' religion, we were finally ready to go to our prearranged tour of the Galleria dell'Accademia. Unfortunately, our guide for this tour was nowhere near as awesome as our Vatican tour guide. She was honestly kind of a dud. Her English was bunk and she made a noise after every sentence... Not quite "ehm?" but something like that. Totally distracting. We decided we didn't give a rat's ass about the history of the Medici, handed her back our little your headsets, and ran away to see Michelangelo's David, "ehm?"-free. I was disappointed that we could not take photos in the Accademia. (Although my mum did sneakily turn the video function on on her camera as it hung from her shoulder, pretending to be off, and managed to beta shaky, long distance, illegal video of the lovely Mister David - she's too cool!). Someone pointed out to me that David's pupils are heart-shaped, which I never knew before. And sure enough. They totally are. So adorable!! I guess I never really paid attention before, but David is kinda sexy. Very nice butt. Big hands. Just... Hot stuff! Teehee.
Once we were done with the Accademia, we sort of just wandered around for a while and eventually wove our way back to Za-Za for lunch again. I got grilled pork with the magic rosemary potatoes again. Delish! We then wove our ay through the Mercato Centrale, which is similar to Cleveland's West Side Market, just to check it out. I thought the whole place stank of raw meat and stinky cheese, but I will admit it was very cool looking. From there we then went to check out another place Wendy read about: the Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella... Which is an apothecary that has been in business since 1612- that's 400 years!! They were doing some major renovations for their anniversary, but regardless, I thought the place was really cool - although all the ladies working there seemed like real bitches. I kind of want to go back and buy this perfume I sniffed. It was heavenly, but I was too afraid of the mean ladies to ask the price. After that we just wandered around window shopping until we eventually ended up taking a rest at the Piazza della Signoria until it was time for part two of our museums tour: the Uffizi Gallery. Our same annoying guide was back, but we just accepted it this time. We did breeze through the various rooms pretty quickly, but all I really wanted to see were the Boticellis 'Primavera' and 'The Birth of Venus'. Which were stunning. It is so weird to really be standing right there in front of pieces of art you've known your whole life...
Exhausted at this point, we went back to the supermarket to buy dinner and then staggered back to the hotel and ate and then just hung out chatting. I feel very happy to be here with my amazing mother and sister. I am a truly lucky to be here and to have them both.
I feel like I am leaving out so much, but it's all so overwhelming! Hopefully I can continue to share at least the highlights as the trip goes on.
Until then, I am beyond tired and ready for bed.
Lots of love, Phoebe
P.S.- have I mentioned that Florentine men LOVE me?! I have never gotten so much attention in my life. I guess European women are just not heavily tattooed. But their intrigue is not obnoxious the way that it is at home. It's just funny and cute... Maybe it's the accent.