Florence, Day 8 Italy

We had a late morning reservation at the Galleria dell’Accademia which
houses Michelangelo’s David.

We started chatting to the couple behind us in line who were from Pacific
Palisades. I noticed the man had on a jacket with the logo of the letters “H” and “W” with
a lion in the middle. So I just said, “Oh, that reminds me of Harvard-Westlake.” The
man said, “It IS Harvard-Westlake.” So I said, “I’m
a Westlake girl,” and the woman said, “I’m a Westlake girl,
too!” We had lots of fun talking about how great Westwood Village was
decades ago and reminiscing about the old restaurants and bookstores.

When we got in we rented the audio-guides. All I can say is that David is
more riveting than I ever could have predicted. He is so commanding, so poignant,
so moving that I couldn’t look anywhere else in the room. You know you
are in the presence of something exceptional.

We visited Santa Croce Church, built in 1212, which houses the tombs of Galileo,
Michelangelo, Dante, and Machiavelli. The church contains a lot of precious
art and we spent quite awhile here, in fact, we were one of the last ones out
as they closed it for the evening.

We enjoyed a very good dinner at Il Ritrovo which we located down a dark street
below street level. It was in our guide and had been recommended to us, but
we were the only ones there the whole evening. The candles continued to burn
on each table and the waiter catered to us—so special to be the only ones
in this setting, and the food was scrumptious.

This was our last night in Florence. We hadn’t even begun to touch her
wonders and she deserved a lot more time, but how fortunate we were to have
this time there.

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