2005-06-07 - 9:57 a.m.

OK, so I haven't updated in eons....
Italy was great. Theo still rolls her eyes at my day-trip to Venice from Florence to see the Armoury in the Doge's Palace. The original plan was to hit San Marino, but the train schedule didn't allow for a day trip option. The armory was nifty and I'm probably going to have to contact them for photos of a brigantine they had on display. The only fully complete set I've seen. Most just show a front or back and few have the complete skirting. Unfortunately ran out of time to get into St. Mark's there. Oh well...Maybe next time, whenever that may be. At least I got a neat book on it. Can we say ostentacious? In general a great trip, but really grumpy they didn't allow any pictures in the museums.... The Stibbert has some amazing things but annoyed that you have to go through in groups, so there is no taking your time to carefully study objects. Plus the whole lack of able to take pictures thing again.... At least I was able to get back to see the front rooms as the group I joined was already going. Theo was a little bitter that I went into the Uffuzi before her. I had time to kill on an afternoon, and since the prereservations were booked out for the next month I decided to check out how bad the lines were. I lucked out with a tour guide having 3 spare tickets and only wound up having to wait like 15 minutes instead of the indicated 90-120 minutes.... Definitely a place where your brain just melts after a while. I'd have to say my favorite museum was probably the Bargello. An interesting mix of various items from sculpture to pottery to amazing ivories to armor.
Many amazing churches....The best was probably Santa Minialto al Monte, which is south of the Arno and looks back over the city. An amazing view from there. Too bad it was dusk when we hit it. A lot of the pictures weren't very good due to the poor light.

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