Venice + Florence = cultural overload

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After a couple of days in Venice, a day in Verona and a couple more in Florence, I'm feeling a little cultural overload - and I like going to museums!

Lynn and I spent several hours in the Accademia in Venice and, today, in the Uffizi here in Florence. Both have wonderful collections of paintings from the Middle Ages up through the Renaissance and into the Baroque period. It's fascinating to see the gradual shift from the stiff poses and flat surfaces of the mediaeval works to the dynamic, life-like compositions of Botticelli, Raphael and Caravaggio (to name a very few).

We varied the museum round with a walk in the hills north of Florence yesterday. We even broke out the hiking boots and poles again! The hills surrounding the city are an attractive mix of olive groves and oak-and-cypress woods. We ended up in Fiesole, where all the rich Florentines have their country villas. An Etruscan and Roman town, there were a few ancient ruins to satisfy my archaeological side.

We'll spend the next few days in a couple of smaller Tuscan towns, then on to Rome!

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