Day 17 - Florence and Afternoon Train to Venice

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We awoke to another hot day in Florence, but had lots to see.

We started at the Academia Gallery, the home of Michelangelo’s “David”. This sculpture dominates the gallery and it is very impressive to see. There were also other works from Michelangelo in the gallery including a number of unfinished works, and it was fascinating to see how the figures are released from the marble. You could still see the chisel marks on the unfinished sculptures.

We then wandered through Florence towards one of the oldest galleries in Europe, the Ufizzi Gallery. This has hall after hall of sculptures and painting most hundreds or thousands of years old. These included Sandro Botticelli’s masterpiece The Birth of Venus.

Now that we have been in Florence and understand what it has to offer, we would probably have scheduled more time in this lovely city, but we are off to Venice on the afternoon train, so have reason to come back to Italy in the future.

On our train to Venice we were sat next to a great couple of Brisbane. It amazes me that you can book tickets on a train in Italy 2 months in advance and somehow end up sitting next toanother Aussie on the opposite side of the world. The worldis such a small place.

Anyway, our train was a little late getting into Venice. We followed our Host's instructions and boarded a very crowded Water Bus to a stop on the opposite side of Venice. Lorenzo was waiting on the docks for us to arrive, which is good, cause if we had had to find the B&B through the maze that is Venice, we would have been lost.

The evening is hot again, but tomorrow is forcast for some relief at only 30C.

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