Day 5 - Blasting Through the Italian Countryside. Rome to Firenze.

We had a great time in Rome but, alas, it was time to move on to the next destination. The Hill's, being the overwhelmingly gracious people that they are, set us up with their driver, Chafi, to take us to Florence. Chafi was the best driver we could have had! He took us for an impromptu tour of Rome before we got onto the highway and showed us some amazing overlooks of the city. Such a great city. I liked it a lot more than I thought I would!

Once on the highway, which, by the way, Italy has amazing highways, Chafi put the pedal to the metal and stretched the Mercedes legs a bit. I was watching the speedometer hitting a little over 150kmh and I knew it was fast. I fired up the GPS on my phone and, sure enough, we were flying along at 95 to 100mph for miles upon miles. Along the way, Chafi made sure and pointed out various landmarks and took us up to the amazing village of Orvieto for lunch.

Orvieto is one of many "defense" towns that were created high on a mountain but the difference with Orvieto is that the cliffs around it rise almost vertically and then a wall was built on top of that. The town was virtually impregnable. Built by the Etruscans then annexed by Rome in the 3rd Century BC. (Yes, that's Before Christ, as in a shit-ton of years ago!!) it was last conquered by Julius Caesar. In 1290, some pope dude decided to build a kick-ass church there that is truly amazing. You know, these churches were really the centerpiece of these towns. The church is what held the people together. After the fall of the Roman Empire, virtually everyone wanted a piece of Orvieto. The Lombards, the Goths, the Skaters - everyone. Even the Church was involved as the Pope would bail from Rome when shit was going down and head out to Orvieto because he knew he'd be safe there.

After lunch, we headed out to Florence. So you world travelers will get a kick out of this. We're driving along and not once did I see a single sign pointing to Florence. I was a getting a little concerned when Chafi exited the highway following a sign to Firenze. Huh? For some dumbass reason, Firenze is Florence! I felt like such a dumb tourist. We get to our hotel and have less than one hour to make our way to the Accademia for our 5PM reservations.

I really had no idea what to expect from the Accademia other than I knew that the statue of David was there, as well as a few other Michelangelo works. I like art but I tend to like super-realistic art....actually, photography is my favorite. All I have to say is that all the artists, other than Michelangelo had fugly models. Seriously, where or where did they find those ugly kids? Also, I fully believe that the artists truly enjoyed painting and sculpting kids and young teen girls. I guess they did get married off at 13 or so back then. Weird.

The Statue of David was awe inspiring! Much larger and more impressive than I could have imagined. Both Sandra and I were quite moved by being in the presence of greatness and the epitome of sculpted art. A truly priceless artifact in a city and country filled with them. Though we are beginning to get used to the architecture, the art is still freaking amazing. So....we're walking along the streets after visiting the Accademia and stopped at a shop with the most amazing paintings. A closer look revealed that the colors we were seeing weren't paints, but stones!! We had randomly stumbled into the shop of Renzo Scarpelli who is one of the last 5 mosaic masters in the world!!....and his son, Leonardo, is one of those 5! Truly amazing works that take months and months of work in Renzo's skilled hands. We met Renzo and were so impressed that we mortgaged our house to buy one of his works.......OK, I digress.....we only dreamt of that. Look up Renzo Scarpelli - you'll be amazed!

To finish our day, we ended up at a touristy restaurant next to the Duomo, drank a few cocktails, had a Frutti di Mare Pizza and Misto Insalata and made our way back to our apartment/hotel. And a good day was had by all!!!