"Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer"

Venice was fascinating. A city built on the water with canals instead of roads and boats replacing cars and motorcycles. Many of the buildings have their foundations below the water level.....travel tip: don't book a basement room (in the unlikely event that you find one). One of the few pedestrian-only cities in the world, it is a walker's dream, except for the travellers who brought along huge, rolling suitcases and had to carry them over some of the 400+ step-bridges to get to their hotels.....another good reason to be a backpacker. An added delight for us was meeting up with hometown friends Jim and Debbie who happened to be in Venice at the same time as us. We spent one full day together touring Venice on the vaporettos (water buses), along the Grand Canal and over to the islands of Murano (Murano glass) and Burano (colourful homes, leaning tower). That evening, Father Peter, our gracious host at the former monastery we all stayed at, and who had previously introduced us to a fun couple from Melbourne, noticed the 6 of us sitting together in a common area sharing pre-dinner wine, snacks and stories. He insisted we join him in his dining room for some of his wine and cheese. More entertaining stories followed and before we knew it, it was later in the evening and we all retired to our rooms for the night.
The next day our old and new friends departed Venice and we walked all around the charming city, across many bridges and temporarily getting lost on occasion while walking along narrow alleyways or winding streets. Some of our highlights included the massive Basilica San Marco (24 carat gold ceiling frescoes), the Peggy Guggenheim art museum (Picasso, Dali, Kandinsky), the Ponte de Rialto (famous bridge) and watching the gondolas trying to maneuver their way around the larger canal vessels. Delicious seafood platters were a dinner staple for us, along with cold beers and gelatos in the public squares during the daytime.

Leaving Venice we took the high speed train to Florence where we are finishing a three night stay. Florence is obviously completely different, being well inland from the sea. Lots of cars, motorcycles and bicycles but also filled with impressive churches, often only a block or two apart, and major art museums containing classical Renaissance art, many of which are monumental in size and secular. That was our focus today, spending hours at both world famous art galleries, the Uffizi and the Accademia, where we were awed by masterpieces by the Italian masters including Botticelli, Titian, Raphael, Da Vinci and sculptures by Michelangelo.......'David' alone was over 5 metres high which made it easier to view with throngs of admirers crowded around. Audioguides were extremely helpful in describing the artist's intent, background highlights and often stories within a painting. We also toured the main Cathedral, with room to hold 30,000 people and a fabulous Brunelleschi designed dome which had a scenic view of the entire city but was unfortunately sold-out for the day by the time we arrived. The exterior of the massive church is even more impressive than the interior (picture below). We also stopped into many more churches which we do by habit since almost every Italian church we come across seemed to be filled with both famous art and architecture.
Yesterday I took my beloved wife on a walkathon, mostly south of the wide Arno River. Our main destination was the 15th century Pitti Palace, a monstrous building occupied by the ruling class of Florence but now a very large and impressive museum. It is filled with finely designed rooms, ceiling frescoes and over 500 Renaissance paintings. I now feel like an inadequate provider of accommodation for my princess, living in our tiny home that could fit inside one of them many grand rooms inside the palace. After two hours in the palace we walked through the attached Boboli Gardens and then took a steady uphill route to the top of a hill overlooking Florence. A church built in 1013 facilitated the lovely view, as did the Piazza Michelangelo further down the steeper side of the hill. We reached the main part of the city by crossing the famous Ponte Vecchio bridge which has shops built on the bridge. The shops were originally occupied by local fishermen and butchers but the ruling class decided the smells were not of high quality and ousted them for gold and silver merchants (who paid higher taxes....the real reason). Today almost all of the shops are jewelry stores selling expensive gold, silver and diamond pieces. Fortunately my dear wife was tired from our walk and so anxious to get back to our room that she spent very little time looking into the shop windows (another useful travel tip).  The bridge also contains the non-accessible Vasari Corridor.....for those Dan Brown fans it is the secret passageway Langdon used to get back to the Cathedral from the Pitti Palace. They actually have Dan Brown Inferno tours available (our friend Jim took one when he was here) but we ran out of time.

Tomorrow we will be taking the train to nearby Lucca where we will have the pleasure of meeting up with our oldest daughter Rachel who now resides in Basel, Switzerland....looking forward to that.

Venice's Ponte di Rialto bridge along the Grand Canal. Water bus coming through and home owners with leaky first floors on the side. With sea levels rising globally this city has an ominous future.

The Comet Glass Star made out of Murano glass. There were lots of factories producing the famous high quality, colourful glass on the island.

Burano's colourful homes along one of their canals. The church tower in the background is leaning much more than it appears here when you are up close to it.

The San Marco Plaza in Venice containing it's well adorned Cathedral which required a 30 minute line-up to get into.

A painter capturing some of the beautiful views along the Grand Canal on one of the many bridges in the city.

Various types of biscotti for sale in Florence's Central Market. The  olive oil here in Italy is also quite incredible.....I don't believe they are sending their best products to other countries.

Just one of the 50+ rooms in the Pitti Palace.....and this was just a waiting room for nobles to see the ruling family.

A very small portion of the 111 acre Boboli Gardens forming the backyard for the Pitti Palace.

The Ponte Vecchio bridge and the Arno River taken from the top floor of the Ufizzi art museum. It seems like a very secure place for jewelry shops with its limited access.

The main Cathedral in Florence - Duomo di Santa Maria del Fiore. It is much more impressive when not in the shade. The Baptistery is in the foreground, the bell tower to the right and the dome at the back which covers the main alter inside. Tourists can get to the top of the dome for fantastic city views but apparently you need to pay for a reservation earlier in the day than when we arrived.

Michelangelo's 'David' at the Accademia art gallery. We have closer pictures but this one provides a better perspective on the massive size of this masterpiece.