As much as we enjoy traveling with Isabelle and witness her seeing the world, I’m not a fan of the one week trip to Europe.  Because here we are, done already.  It has been another great trip climaxing with a gorgeous day today after a week that was a bit chilly, though warmer than either Madrid and Paris the past two years.

Since our visit to Pisa on Tuesday, we have been enjoying sites in Florence as well as dabbling in the retail marketplaces.  We have visited Santa Croce (very lovely) where the bodies of Marconi, Dante, Michelangelo, Galileo and Machiavelli are entombed.  Re-visited the Santa Maria del Fiore (the Duomo) to the extent they now allow which is minimal without climbing the 463 steps into the Dome, the Galleria dell’ Accademia (home of Michelagelo’s David), Santa Maria Novella around the corner from our apartment (lovely), Palazzo Davanzati (very interesting), and San Lorenzo (disappointing).

We thoroughly enjoyed repeat dinners at L’Osteria Giovanni and Osteria Pastella where the hospitality is second to none and on our last night stumbled into a place called Neromo in the Oltrarno area of the city and it turned out to be terrific.  We were the only English speakers we heard.

And I should mention that we had an excellent apartment around the corner from Santa Maria Novella that we secured through Windows on Italy.

All for now.  Off to Victoria British Columbia in about a week.