Bill gets churched twice

Last night we had a good dinner at a little outdoor restaurant recommended in one of the guides. We chatted with a couple from Denmark at the next table and they invited us to stay at their house overnight just outside Copenhagen when we get there. We'll see.

This morning we went to the "Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore" or "Il Duomo" for Mass. We were early, naturally, so we were invited to sit in the 2nd pew back from the altar, right below the high dome. The Mass was mostly done in a Gregorian chant with about 6 priests, a small choir and a great sounding pipe organ. The way the sound echoed up through the dome was fantastic. Anita was able to follow the whole mass even though it was in Italian. The handout had the readings of the day in Italian, French, German, English and Spanish, which also helped.

After Mass we were walking back to our hotel when we heard Caribbean music from a side street. We went to the door where we heard it and were invited in. It was a small room with white plastic chairs and about 30 or 40 people, all black and apparently of Caribbean descent (but nobody speaking any English) finishing their church service by dancing around the perimeter of the room with a full band (including full drum set) playing full blast. They invited us to join them so we danced around the room too. Nice people, different experience from the Mass we'd just been to. Anita says Theresa Olsheskie who has experience with such things, would approve.

After a picnic lunch in our room, we headed down to Galleria degli Uffizi, which is a famous art gallery with many works by Michelangelo and other old masters. However, the line was so long we didn't even bother trying to get in. We did take another look at the Loggia dei Lanzi which is an open air gallery with some amazing statues, all about 8 feet tall, including Hercules slaying a centaur, the "Rape of the Sabine Women" and the "Rape of Polyxena". In this context, rape doesn't mean what we think but refers to the abduction of Sabine women who lived in the area around Rome by Romulus and his followers who had no wives. Apparently, after the abductions at a festival organized by Romulus, he spoke to each woman and promised them full rights and freedom as Romans for their children. The Sabine women stopped a war between their new husbands and their fathers and brothers by stepping between the two warring sides. In the end it all worked out and is commemorated by these statues which are somewhat unfortunately titled from our usual perspective.

There are beautiful statues just out there and you never know what you might see when you turn a corner.

We crossed the Ponte Vecchio which is the only old bridge left in Florence that wasn't destroyed by the Nazis during their retreat in 1944. It's actually a long building across the water with many high end jewellry shops. We wandered up to the Pitti Palace which is another museum but weren't really interested in going in. After some gelatto, we headed back to our hotel to cool down before dinner. Tomorrow we were thinking about taking the train to Pisa for the day but we've decided to stay here and climb up to "Piazza Michelangelo" across the Arno River for apparently the best view of the city and surrounding hills.