Me and My House: David-Florence-Abbie

Sweet Abbie loves art and is an incredible artist herself. We got skunked out of the Vatican museum while we were in Roma, as we couldn't get our phones to order tickets (we don't all have wifi and if one of us does, it's tricky, except for where we stay at night, hence the strange post hours and lack of editing as I am blogging from my tiny phone very late).
So when we got to Florence I promised we'd buy her tickets to the Academia which houses David and other famous paintings by Michaelangelo and his confreres. We made a special stop yesterday to buy tickets in advance so we could visit today with no lines. It was a perfect plan. Of course every where you visit here is so full of famous beauty you cannot easily escape it. Still Abbie had her heart set on seeing the real deal, and who could blame her.

This morning at breakfast Abbie was cooking Fred and Peter eggs and Fred asked "how is it decided that one sculpture is so much better than another? I mean, what kind of standard is applied?" He said he could see how that would be pretty easy to ser with a painter, but not so easy with a sculptor.He was totally being honest and just really curious. Abbie expained alot about sculpturing and we listened, and then she and Pete headed out by bike to buy sneakers (her feet have been aching her from the 10 mile days) and meet us at 1 for our tour.

We walked into the first room of the museum and looked at some really magnificent paintings and a few sculptures.

The rest of the beauty!

I loved these paintings!

This whole room was filled with these depictions

Then we turned the corner of the next room and...there he was.

Look at the people to gain perspective on size

Up close

In a single instant, all the questions were gone. He is a breathtaking sight to behold. In fact we all seperated and found different spots to sit and stare for as long as we possibly could without being rude. After about a half hour of gazing at David, I said to Abbie "would you like to finish the tour so we can see the other statues and paintings?" She smiled and said "sure, but what's the point?" She summed up all our feelings perfectly. Fred said as we left the building, "all my questions were answered in a single glance". What an incredible day for her, and us all.

I love watching her watching David

For the rest of the afternoon Pete and Abbie rode bikes around Florence (I wonder where they got that idea?) and Fred and I visited any church we hadn't yet seen. There are quite alot, so we have fallen into a form. We enter (we don't pay, we are pilgrims not tourists and I remind Peter and Abbie each time they gaze in awe that this is their church, by right and they are not visitors). We then pray for the Holy Father and his intentions, we see if one of the name saints is that of someone in our family or friends close to us, we light alot of candles. A whole lot of candles. At every church. I knew we couldn't possibly afford to pay for gifts for all my dear friends back home, but you can be assured I have lit a candle for you and remembered you before God in some really special places. To finish our intentions, we ask God to bless anyone we are forgetting and to watch over their intentions and give them special graces. All of these prayers have been my very favorite part of our travels, especially because almost every church simply asks a donation for a real candle and so I am free to light so many!

Candle trees

Our children, grandchildren, and godchildren

I love how the candles are standing in sand

Tonight I decided to cook for the 4 of us on our last night in Florence. I bought pancetta and fettucinni and fresh Romano cheese plus tomato and chicken and we had a lovely dinner together. There is a romantic place to watch the sunset so Pete and Abbie biked there after we ate and Fred and I are laying low til we feel it's time to get gelato. Speaking of gelato, Fred has decide it's good, but that he still prefers ice cream. Since I don't like even ice cream I'm a terrible judge. I had salted caramel gelato and it was nice, but I'd take tiramisu any day over it (and in fact I have most days here).