After the hotel breakfast shown first below, we headed in the rain to the Uffizi Gallery, where the exhibits are on the fourth and third floors to avoid the flooding of river adjacent, which was almost flooding when we were there.

In this post you can see some of the art we saw– including lots from the Renaissance, and some more recent self portraits, which included a couple women.

Then we walked to the Ponte Vecchio, which was Florence’s only bridge to survive WWII. You can see in those photos how the water is unusually high.

Near there, I bought gorgeous bright leather gloves, in an adorable little shop, where you place your elbow on a cushion while they fit you perfectly. Yes, I bought all three of those, for the price of what one would cost at home.

We went to the Central market for the roasted tomato flatbread lunch shown, and then after collecting our luggage from the hotel, we ran through the now deluge of pouring rain to the train station, where we took the train to meet our friends in the charming Tuscan town of Chiusi. We all met up for dinner, where my husband and I shared the ravioli and arugula pizza. Yum!

We start painting tomorrow!