A Quick Tour of the Villa

The living room

Plush furniture

The kitchen/preparing the best gnocci ever made

Sunset

The pool and outdoor patio, where we eat dinner on occasion

The sleeping happens somewhere.

Day Three: Uffizi and Academia

Bad news: we went to the Uffizi and the Academia, but they were closed. Good news: David and Dorothy's friend, Simonetta Brandolini, was able to arrange private tours. Along with our Philadelphia appropriate tour guide, Rocky, we were able to be alone with some of the finest works of art ever created. We were also able to get a personal tour of the exclusive Vazari Passage, the Medici's secret passage, which runs the mile long distance between the Uffizi and Medici Palace, spanning the Ponte Vecchio and running through private homes. The inside, which is not open to the public, houses self portraits of some of the greatest artists in history, provided by the Uffizi's collection. 

Tim didn't quite beat the jet lag yet.

Alone with David in the Academia

The Vasari Passage from the inside...

...and from the outside (see the windows over the Ponte Vecchio).

Di is taller than Cheryl

Pritch is fatter than Kevin...and the statue

and Dorothy was worried when he tried to drive a stick?

Sunset from the villa

David's new business 

Lunch...at the same restaurant as the day before

Fighting the crowds in the Uffizi...mostly Elizabeth.

In front o Botticelli's Birth of Venus

Pictures: Day II

Pictures

Alea Iacta Est

Welcome, loyal fanbase, and discover the secrets of how seventeen (hopefully eighteen) people can survive in a land filled with great wine, pasta at every meal and more history than the channel. Over the next week we will let you journey with us, seeing all of the same sights and wishing you could taste all of the same food. But that will begin tomorrow, since none of us slept on the plane and we are awaiting Jeffery's food faceplant with baited breath.

Until next time,
Semper Ubi Sub Ubi


Welcome to Italy from Peter Binswanger on Vimeo.