random assortment from Florence

I love the doorway to this shop:

Perhaps the happiest horse I've ever seen. This guy was seriously grubbing.

Italian pulp fiction: Intrigo in Vaticano. And there's a picture of a nun holding a smoking gun. I'd love to know what happens in this book.

Cute older couple looking out their window. After I took this picture, they smiled and waved. Guess I was too early with the shot.

The Piggy Market (that's what it's actually called because of the statue of a pig at its entrance):

Inside the Piggy Market:

Roberto Benigni was scheduled to perform in Florence just a couple days after we left. He was going to recite from The Divine Comedy. I would love to have been there for that!

The Uffizi Gallery, from across the river.
It used to belong to the Medicis and is where they stored their art collection. It was also once an office building, hence the name Uffizi (which means offices). We saw original artwork from Botticelli, da Vinci, Durer, Giotto, and lots more. By the time we got into the courtyard, the batteries in my camera died, which sucked because the courtyard itself is quite a sight. Lots of spectacular statues and interesting live perfomance artists. Amy took some pictures with her camera, though, and once I get access to those, I'm going to put them up here. They're great. But of course, no pictures were allowed inside the gallery.