Sunday in Florence

Church in the park*San Marco Museum*The David/Academia*Palazzo Vecchio*Ponte Vecchio

16,700 steps

We arrived at the Florence ward house this morning at 9:30 only to find out it was Stake Conference. There were about 40 other tourists (38 from America and 2 from England) gathered around as well and one lone member originally from Peru that had forgotten it was Stake Conference too. Because the conference was an hour away by bus we decided to hold our own testimony meeting in a nearby park. It was really sweet to listen to the testimonies of complete strangers and then feel like they were all your best friends by the end of the meeting. It was all in English except the Peruvian sister who shared her testimony in Spanish.

After church, prosciutto sandwich lunch, and a few hands of Rook, we ventured out again to the San Marco Museum, a monastery converted to a museum. Savonarola is one of the more famous Monks who lived here. The top floor was cool because we got to see the tiny rooms where all the Monks lived and studied. After San Marco's we went to The Academia to see the David. It was crowded today, but we still enjoyed our time with Michelangelo's prisoners and the impressive David. The David is an amazing piece of art. It was evident that everyone needed a nap after this so we headed back to the apartment. Thank heavens everything in Florence is only a 10 minute walk away - including our apartment (which is actually 2 apartments combined and feels huge compared to anything else we've stayed it).

After dinner of homemade pasta all'arrabbiata we walked down to the Palazzo Vecchio for a secret passage tour we had reserved. The tour guide was excellent and led us through several of the secret stairways the Medici family used to get around and hide their treasures. I was completely surprised when he opened a paining to reveal a hidden stairwell. We even went up to the rafters of the great assembly hall to look at the Vasari trusses - a 140 foot span trusses system to support a 40 ton ceiling. (If you've read Dan Brown's inferno - Robert Langdon (I.E. Tom Hanks) falls through the center picture while trying to escape through the ceiling). It was an informative tour and the kids liked the interesting element of the secret passages.

We meandered back to our apartment after visiting the Ponte Vecchio as dusk in a light drizzle of rain (it poured the second we walked through the the day) - a lovely view.