Last Day!

It's 12:58 a.m. right now. It is exactly 2 hours and 17 minutes before we have to wake up to get ready for our flight. We are supposed to take a taxi at 4:30 a.m. and we have one major problem: WE CAN'T SLEEP! We spent 2 and a half hours in complete darkness and silence. So, what happened? We both woke up at 12: a.m. in unison and had gelato and chocolate. Maybe we couldn't sleep because we were thinking about the sweets in the fridge. Since we couldn't sleep, we figured we'd blog.

Today was a day of "lasts," our last walk to Ponte Vecchio, Piazza della Signoria, and the Duomo, our last home-cooked meal, gelato... oh, we're sure you get it. We tried to squeeze in as much as we could without getting ourselves too tired.

We headed off towards the Uffizi Gallery and passed by Ponte Vecchio along the way. We spent time enjoying all of the sculptures and the artists selling their paintings outside the gallery. We also admired the statuary at Piazza della Signoria before making our way to the Santa Maria Del Fiore, or the Duomo. Along the way, Cindy stopped by a candy store she had been eyeing the whole month. She bought a little something that may not make it home. We entered Santa Maria Del Fiore and took in the cathedral from the inside. It does not seem as large once inside because it is sectioned off in the middle. We are so glad that we climbed the Duomo because that is really the only way one can admire the cupola by Brunelleschi. The cathedral is also a little bare because all of the sculpures and artwork are at the Museo Dell'Opera di Santa Maria Del Fiore for safe-keeping. Luckilly, we had already gone to the "Bronzes of the Baptistry" exhibit, where most of the cathedral's artwork is on display. We did discover something interesting about the cathedral though, it turns out that it is built directly above another cathedral, Santa Reparata. An archeological dig during the early 1970s uncovered this hidden treasure. We were able to walk through the church that is 8 meters below Santa Maria Del Fiore. Very interesting! We also visited Brunelleschi's grave underneath the cathedral too.

After visiting the Duomo, we stopped at the Baptistry to see"Gates of Paradise" by Ghiberti once more. The gold-gilded doors are considered masterpieces and are a must see. It is incredible to think that a city like Florence has made entire collections of artwork available to all who want to see and admire them--for free! It is the same across Europe and it makes us sad that we cannot be as fortunate in Los Angeles. We have the architecture and the beautiful parks but the majority are private. Everyone is equal here, and entitled to view the work of geniuses.

We eventually split up--but only for an hour!! Don't worry! We split up only so that Pox could buy Cindy a surprise for her birthday. Cindy went to Conad to buy some last minute things that were needed for dinner. We met up an hour later at the apartment. Pox was a little upset because the store he had gone to was already closed. Cindy was wasn't upset, she appreciated the fact that he went through all of that trouble and said that, "the intention is the gift and the best one too." She doesn't need anything else!

Cindy made dinner and served, in Pox's words, "obscene amounts of spaghetti." We enjoyed it anyway... yumm-o. After dinner, we took a walk to the train station to get some taxi information just in case we had to walk it there in the morning before our flight. We were relieved to find out that we could add international minutes to our magicJack, which makes it easier to call for a taxi. We are both happy to be going home because we miss our family and friends; nonetheless, we are also sad to be leaving this beautiful golden city. We just hope that we get to come back some day in the near future. See you all in Los Angeles!