The next day, we headed for Siena, via Pisa.  I've already written a bit about Pisa.  We enjoyed laughing at the tourists, then I embarrassed the boys by insisting on my own Pisa photo.  Hey, when in Pisa..

We then continued on to Siena, in temperatures well into the nineties.  Thankfully, our trusty VW Golf had good a/c.  Our hotel in Siena was another on the sketchy side, but served its purpose.  One thing we noticed-- all the hotels in Italy have emergency cords in the bathrooms, I suppose in case you have a need to summon assistance.  I found it funny, because often the strings would only be reached if you were standing.  Hopefully they are not for old people falling down.  We had a nice dinner in Siena in the main piazza, after a failed attempt to find a restaurant recommended by our hotel.  In fact, I'd say it was my third favorite meal.  About the time P said "I feel like a bird is going to poop on me" a nice plop announced some bird poop plopping on our table.  Oh yeah.  It managed to miss all food and drink, thankfully.  We had some nice Chianti while in the Chianti region.  When we got back to the car, we realized that none of us knew the name of our hotel, nor the name of the street it was on.  After a few minutes of increased concern (and a wrong turn or 4), P discovered the "history" setting on Vickie, and we got back.  It was a scary moment, and as my family knows, I was about 5 minutes away from car sickness.  That magic word, "lost," sends me there faster than Amy Grant music or talk radio. 

The next day involved a full day trek to Florence.  We arrived with little excitement, and made our way to P's #1 pick for that stop, the Ufizzi Museum.  We stood in a very long line for 2 hours, but it was totally worth it.  The museum was great, and after several hours of perusing the masters' works, we headed to a cafe for a seat and some food.  As it started to rain, I was impressed with the entrepeneurship of the street vendors.  While 5 minutes before, there were no umbrellas around, within 2 minutes of the rain starting, every illegal vendor had umbrellas for sale for anywhere from 5-10 euros.  I decided to test their reservation prices, and offered 1 euro.  I ended up getting an umbrella for 2 euros, and P bet me it would be broken.  And... he won.  The umbrella was broken (one of the splines), but it worked just fine at keeping me dry.  I paid more for my cappucino at lunch, so no complaints here.  Plus, I had no qualms about leaving it in the hotel in Rome at the end of the trip.  We toured the Duomo.  Since I loved steps so much, we decided to climb to the very top of the Duomo, a trek that was well worth the effort.  The painting on the ceiling of the dome was intriguing, a depiction of heaven and hell.  Even though hell took up only 1/3 of the painting, it was overwhelming when looking at the art.  The devil depicted in the painting was a figure from the worst nightmare. After enjoying the impressive views of Florence, we headed back down, and were treated to a music practice in the Duomo.  The music was beautiful, old, high church music, and it was surreal and moving to experience that. 

After that, we killed some time walking around before heading to our big restaurant destination of the trip.  It was everything we hoped it would be.  We went all out, and practically had to roll out of there.  They bring complementary champagne to the table, and a huge platter of delicious appetizers.  We ended up sitting next to a couple that, in a small world moment, lives in Chestertown, Maryland!  The meal was incredible, the people friendly, and the chef came out several times to check on each table. What an experience!  We headed back to Siena for the night, and left in the morning for Rome.