July 13, 2013: I rubbed a big old boar's wet nose today.

It's been a long day of walking and soaking in the art history in this city. We started off the day by having breakfast at Cafe Mario, which was a NECA hangout for my group in 2004. I had something very caffeinated and very sugary, which set me straight for the morning.

The Uffizi is overwhelming. It doesn't seem possible that this very, very large collection of some of the most important art in the world is inside these walls. We saw Michelangelo & Botticelli. Masterpieces that we see on posters, postcards, and TV, just staring at us. It's very difficult to absorb the fact that we were looking at the real deal.

I "stole" another group tour while in the Botticelli room. I learned a little bit about The Birth of Venus (illegally pictured below). The painting depicts Venus, blown ashore on a seashell, arriving as a grown woman. Lorenzo de'Medici was having an affair with Simonetta C. Vespucci, and the Venus is supposedly a portrait of her. The tour guide also discussed her poor proportions, such as her left arm being waaaay too long, and her feet weren't standing properly on the shell. Some schools of thought think that it's just a suggestion of the surreal and mythological attitude of the painting, and other schools think it's because Sandro Botticelli never saw a naked woman. Either way, it's amazing that a non-perfect painting is one of the most recognized and famous in the world.

Mike visited the Galileo gallery after that, and I just shopped around the Pitti Palace and took a walk. We ended our day of tours in the royal apartments in Palazzo Pitti, each room growing more and more ridiculously ornate and artful.

This is actually our last night in Florence together. We are heading to Rome tomorrow, so when Mike comes back to Florence to pick up his things and travel back to the US, I'll already be with Derek at the wedding festivities. We celebrated by visiting Porcellino. Giving a rub to his nose ensures you a trip back to Florence. We took one more walk up to the Piazza Michelangelo, took some pictures, and heading down to the Arno for dinner. We both realized that it was super late (almost 11pm), so we just ended up getting pizza in Piazza della Signoria.

Hope you're all enjoying the blog! Our pedometer count for today is: 14,101 steps. Whoah!

Do you think Sandro was inspired by one of the pieces at "Shell Beach," Dad?

Wet nose!

Laundry

Palazzo Pitti

Oh snap. We're comin' back!

I don't want to cheat on Boston....but just LOOK at this.