Wrapping it up in Italy

Our last few days in Italy included a thorough visit to the Uffizi Galleries, the most important museum in the country. It houses works from the "greats" of the Renaissance, including Leonardo, Raphael, Botticelli, Michaelangelo, among others. Perhaps the most famous paintings there are both of Botticelli's masterpieces: the Birth of Venus and Primavera.





We also went to the Accademia, and saw many great sculptures, including David. It really is as impressive as they say it is. We planned ahead and preordered tickets for the opening hour, and arrived early to get in line. As such, when we went in we went straight to the masteriece and had it to ourselves for a full five minutes before the room filled up.

We continued to wander the streets of Florence for the remainder of our trip, eating at various excellent restaurants, stopping into bookstores and pubs, and even toured a local grocery store to get a feel for what the locals do.

On our last day we went to Pisa, and of course saw the famous Leaning Tower. Yep, it sure does lean. Actually, the tower itself is fantastic, and one of the few Pisan towers to survive the bombing during World War II (it is said that once the city bristled with such towers). It is situated next to the Pisa Duomo. We basically saw the entire town, since the train station is on one side of the river and the tower on the other.

We headed to the Pisa airport, and hopped back onto our budget Ryan Air plane to take us back to Brussels, and miraculously we caught the last train between Brussels and Gent at somethng like 1:00.