Tuesday was our day of not really any touristy things planned. Angela had got several of her wedding guest/entourage booked in the same bed and breakfast (full post later) and made plans for us all to do some pre-wedding activities most of the day Tuesday.

After the chaos and anonymity of Rome, it was actually kind of nice to wake up on Tuesday morning and share a bathroom with one of my/Angela’s friends from high school. It was comfortable and relatively relaxing to be with people we know.

I think Andrew really liked the traveling-with-people-we-know part. You’ll have to ask him.

(I can’t help posting this pic – he’s just so cute!)

So ! Because of Angela’s plans … all of us left the b&b around 9a to walk across town to meet the vans picking us up for the day-long tour.

The Duomo and Bapistery (pictured below) were literally 1/2 a block from our b&b.

Virginia wasn’t staying in the same place as us, but she came over in the morning to walk with us.

Poor Virginia!

Arrived in Florence without any luggage. The airline had lost or misplaced or misdirected her luggage. So she had to go find a 1-Euro store for some last minute shampoo; she didn’t have anything other than what she was wearing on; she even had to go buy shoes once she got to Florence.

Sad.

Luckily, her bag arrived the MORNING of the wedding. Perfect timing…

This building – that we never got a chance to go into, but we did walk by several times – is where the Uffizi gallery is housed.

This was formerly offices (“uffizzi“) during the Medici days (renaissance-ish time frame) but is now one of Europe’s top 4 or 5 art galleries.

They only allow 600 people at a time into the galleries, so you must make a reservation (and wait in line). We did not get into the gallery while we were in Florence.

Bummed that I never got around to shooting photos of it, but just outside this building (you can see it a little bit on the right in the 2nd photo down) is an outdoor sculpture gallery. 8 or 10 in a little courtyard. And they’re all lit up at night.

We’ll just have to go back so I can get my photos.

Image below you see 2 statues at the corner of the building. The one on the left is a David replica. It represents where that statue originally stood when it was completed. More about David when we see him for real (!!).

To get to the pick-up point, we crossed over the Arno to the other side. In the image below you can see the Ponte Vecchio. This was the only of Florence’s bridges that wasn’t destroyed in WW2 (rumor has it on Hitler’s specific order).

The Ponte Vecchio and the buildings on it date back to Medieval Europe.

Once on the other side of the Arno, we met in one of the piazzas right near the river. Angela’s family (parents, brother, brother’s fiance) and Devo’s bestman and his family met us there.

We were picked up by 2 vans from Accidental Tourist and taken out to the Tuscan countryside … 45 min out of the city. Just WAIT til you see.