We have exactly one month left in Italy before returning to the real world. Its a little hard to believe. We've already done so much and we still haven't been to Rome yet! For our last month I'm going to make a concerted effort to get more of us in the pictures, not just buildings. For Mike, it means sucking it up and having gelato twice a day. We'll see how things go!
After going for a run (we're doing pretty well I have to say) we crossed a few more sites off our list. The first stop was the Palazzo Davanzati, a five-story palace that is one of the best examples of a 14th century medieval home of a noble family in Florence. We kept our expectations low because our tourbook said we might only be able to see two floors of the palace, but we lucked out and saw four floors, plus the basement! It was actually a pretty great place to visit even though there wasn't a lot of furniture or decoration in the rooms. The family had a long chute that was the height of the house that gave them access to well water throughout the house. Many of the rooms were covered in amazing frescoes on the walls - it's amazing how things that you'd expect to be too busy to ever work well in a room actually do work. We also got to visit the kitchen, which was on the top floor (to reduce damage in case of fires, which happened often).
Next, we went to see the Museum of Precious Stones. This museum documented the history of inlaid marble artwork. There were many samples of the artwork over time, samples of hundreds of precious stones, and examples of the instruments used to do this trade. The only thing missing was a video showing someone actually creating a piece - luckily there were few unfinished pieces that we could examine to see how these creations came to life.
We had some lunch at another great cafeteria-style spot, grabbed some really good gelato at the recommended Gelateria Neri, and then went to visit the Borgello (Museo Nazionale). This museum was full of great statues - featuring Michelangelo and Donatello mostly. David seems to have been quite the inspiration for Renaissance sculptors, and everyone had a different interpretation of how he looked. It was fun to compare the results. Besides the statues, there were rooms full of other objects from Florence during the Renaissance. Mike was most impressed by the Goliath-sized ring fit for kings, and I was struck by the Renaissance version of the "spork" (or travel silverware kit) - a fork that came with an attachable spoon piece, that slips onto the prongs of the fork. 
At this point we were museumed-out. We walked around to check out some areas of Florence that we haven't seen yet. From the train station we traveled west where we found a huge public park and a new bridge (only for light-rail and pedestrians) that took us over to our side of the Arno. We walked down a great tree-lined street back to the Pitti Palace. After we stopped at the market for some veggies for dinner, we went home to cook. Tomorrow we're going to go to Volterra and need to get an early start so we're getting to bed early tonight.
Gelato Gusti per il Giorno:
Mike - Pistacchio e Cookies & Cream and Arachidi e Stracciatella
Aviva - Liquirizia e Cioccolato all'Arancia
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