The next morning, being that our van had missing windows and we had a ten and half hour drive home scheduled for the next day, we had to find a repair shop to give us some kind of temporary fix. We talked to insurance and repair places and had an appointment in the afternoon. Our original plan had been to go to this Italian "food court" of sorts, the Uffizi, and Santa Maria Novella Pharmacia. We thought we'd try splitting up for the museum, since that was really for the kids and I, to let the guys take the van in.
The "food court" style food was perfect for our group. Everybody could get the kind of food they wanted. After that we walked past the Duomo to get the big kids, Bobby, and myself to the Uffizi so the rest of the group could take the van into the shop.
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| Duomo |
They got us mostly there and made sure I knew where I was because our phones have crazy roaming when out of Germany so my GPS wouldn't be at my fingertips exactly and we split up. This is the first time I'd been on my own with children while traveling in another country. I usually rely pretty heavily on Brian for the navigating skills because I am distracted with the kids. So, no phone, no husband, no problem, right? I'm not going anywhere really. I knew where the museum, the shopping area I was interested in if we had enough time, and a gelato place was. I was supposed to try to find WiFi when it was close to meet up time and see where to meet. The big kids were very excited to find some of the paintings we'd been studying in the museum. I was excited to see how much they could remember from what I taught them and have them teach me about all the mythology behind many paintings and statues.
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| Approaching the Uffizi where the statues are out in the square |
And the Uffizi was closed. A man selling his own paintings told me that the government museums are closed on Mondays in Italy. Didn't know that! We were all very disappointed because Tuesday we were headed home. This was our only day in Florence for sight seeing on this trip. Time to make another plan. We first looked at all the statues in the square.
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| The David |
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| Poseidon |
Then we went back to the Duomo because we knew where it was and the kids hadn't seen the inside of it yet.
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| Selfie of kids with one amazing ceiling |
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| The ceiling is my favorite part of the Duomo. |
After that we went to the shopping area with a bunch of huts. I rarely get to shop at my leisure on trips, so this was a treat. I was able to get several gifts there. Then we went back to the "wall of chocolate" place to get the kids gelato. A tight squeeze into a bathroom with a diaper change later, and we needed to find something else to do to kill some more time. Santa Maria Novella was a memorable church to me from our previous visit to Florence and I got a map up on my phone of it while using some really awful WiFi.
Santa Maria Novella costs money to get into, but it is worth it. Giotto's crucifix is there hanging in the middle of the church, not at the altar like you might think.
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| Giotto's crucifix |
The kids enjoyed trying to decide what century the paintings were from and what style they were.
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| In the cloisters, Bobby was not happy to be separated from me even for a second. |
I checked my phone and the guys were back and ready to meet us about the time we were finishing up. The church and accompanying museum took about 2 hours at a very leisurely pace. We met them outside the church and went to hit our one last thing on our list, Santa Maria Novella Pharmacia.
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| Inside Santa Maria Novella Pharmacia |
Mother's Day was slightly usurped by Isaac's First Communion and the traumatic window incident. All was made right though when Brian bought me my Mother's Day gift here. I picked out a different scent this time around, and we got some of the potpourri that the whole store smells like since that is Brian's favorite smell in the whole world.
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| This store is in a scene in one of the Hannibal movies, FYI. |
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