Last we left off we were headed to Mama Gina's for dinner. Ed decided to stay and rest in the room, so we made him some chicken noodle soup from some packets we brought, plugged him into the only English channel we got on the tv (yeah BBC news!) and headed out. We started with some appetizers of bruschetta and pate which were recommended. They were . . . ok. Tim had a steak with cream and green pepper sauce, Michelle had a chicken with cognac and mushroom sauce, and Diana had the chicken Mama Gina. We also had the white (canallini) beans, some wine and 3 different desserts. Yeah, we were a little hungry. We all loved our main meals, the sides and white beans were just ok. After dinner we took a long hike home, zig zagging around town. We want to say that it was because we intended to take a long walk home, but there may have been a little bit of wine involved in the navigation. :)
The next morning we were off to the Academia. Ed decided to stay and rest again, so he missed this museum. The Academia is a little museum, but its prized possession is Michaelangelo's statue of David. You can see pictures of it all of your life, but there is something about seeing the massive sculpture in person that just takes your breath away. Michelle also likes the unfinished sculptures that are also on display from Michaelangelo. You can see the creative process at work here as these figures seem to rise up out of the marble, but never quite escape. Plus, most other sculpters did cermaic models of their work and then copied from there. Michaelangelo (they say) is one of the only ones who worked directly on the marble, no pre-work done. Which is just astounding.
After the Academia we did some shopping, and met a woman in a wine and olive oil shop who was from Chicago. We got to chatting with her, and ended up buying some olive oil, basalmic vinagrette and some local spice mixtures. Afterwards we went and picked up Ed, and slowly made our way to the Ufuzzi gallery. The Ufuzzi is a large horseshoe shapped gallery full of all kinds of paintings and sculptures. Unfortunately, the rooms that Michelle was most interested in (where there are a number of large sculptures) was closed for restoration. But overall it was fun to take the Rick Steves tour version and hear about the history of many of the works.
After the gallery we walked around and did some shopping, ate a late lunch of kababs, and went back to the room. Ed decided to stay home and relax with another bowl of soup, the rest of us headed back to . . . wait for it . . . Mama Gina's! For appetisers we had an avocado and shrimp with thousand island dressing dish, and a dish with raw artichoke with olive oil and slices of paremsean cheese. We have to say, the avocado/shrimp dish was interesting, we could have done without the raw artichokes. :) But, life is an adventure, right, you try new things and the worst thing that happens is that you don't like it. Tim had the steak again, Michelle had the chicken again (what was that we just said about trying new things?), and Diana tried chicken tuscany style with fried zuchinni. This basically meant fried chicken and zuchini fries. We also had fried artichoke as a side with dinner. Dessert was for Michelle, and was a traditional tiramisou. Overall, another wonderful meal!
We walked back from the hotel, this time in more of a straight line than last night, and took a moment at the Arno river for pictures. While there, we met a couple from New York who were having dinner with their friend from Texas. The woman from Texas was there for a semester as a student. It was fun to meet some random people and share a laugh and travel tips in such a beautiful location.
A short walk brought us home and to bed. All in all, a good day!
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