We said "Ciao" to Venice this morning and traded the vaporetti for our comfy seats on the bus.  Jesse let us settle in and relax a bit before giving us a history lesson to help prepare us for today's encounter with Florence and the Renaissance.  Time really flew by: one rest stop, a little more history, then a unique experience at an Italian Autogrille where we stopped for lunch. They had a nice selection of surprisingly good food and the Autogrille itself spans the highway.  Before we knew it, we were all checked into our hotel and ready to go get acquainted with Florence.

 

Our walking tour started just down the street from our hotel at the Santa Maria Novella Church, and from there went to the Piazza del Duomo where we were treated to an unexpected procession coming out of the Duomo.  We swung by the Piazza Repubblica and then by the Orsanmichele on our way to the Palazzo Vecchio. We took a short photo-op break there, before continuing on to the much anticipated Accademia Gallery to be awed by Michelangelo's genius - so much great art in one place!

 

We ran into another Rick Steves' group heading in the opposite direction - Ben Cameron and his group - so it IS a small world after all:  not sure where they were heading, but we had a group dinner waiting for us.  Dinner at Gigolo Rosso was a two and a half hour long feast, starting with wild boar tagliatelle, then a sliced steak with arugala and roasted potatoes - with plenty of wine, of course. We had a dozen choices from the dessert cart and then a sampling of limoncello or a blueberry digestivo.  It felt like a special celebration was held just for us.