Florence Recap

Florence was beautiful.  The city, the art, the food.  The David alone is life changing.

Okay, this is not the marble David, but I was not allowed to take pictures of him.  This one is a copper replica.  Here is the marble.

(source)

This one is life changing and was by far the most amazing piece of art I saw in Florence.  The detail in this statue is insane.  He has veins in his hands, arms and feet.  It is breath taking.  The David is located in the Galleria dell'Accademia and he is waiting around the first corner you turn.  When you go into the museum there is a large room with paintings which we spent some time in and then you exit into a long corridor room.  The space is massive, because, honestly the David is massive.  He is 17 feet tall and is standing on top of a tall pedestal (which he deserves).  When you enter the second room you are at the opposite end from the David.  Once you turn your head and realize he is there, there is nothing you can do besides stop in your tracks and stare in awe.  It is that amazing.  There are no words.

Since there are no words, I will transition to telling you about all three museums we visited in Florence.  All of them have amazing art work.  We visited Academia, Uffizi and the Bargello.  As I mentioned the Academia houses the David.  The husband and I kind of felt a little sad for all the other art that is displayed there.  We spent about 3 hours in the museum and most of that time we spent circling the David and viewing it from different angles.  Life. Changing.

The Uffizi houses some of the most amazing paintings in the world.  Including Botticelli's The Birth of Venus.

(source)

The Bargello has amazing sculptures.  Most of which are carved from marble.  All are mind blowing when you think about how they started as massive pieces of rock.

Like I stressed in my Venice Recap post, I HIGHLY recommend that when you are visiting places like these you buy your tickets online in advance.  The husband is a planner, and I love him for that.  We arrived in Italy with tickets for all these places in hand (or at least paid reservation slips that we exchanged for tickets).  Doing this saves SO MUCH time.  The lines for these museums were blocks and blocks long.  We were able to pass those lines right up.  Take some time for the planning before you go.  You will not be sorry.

On to the city.  Oh, the city.

Hello Gorgeous.

I miss you.

The Arno River flows through the city and it is beautiful.
 

The day we visited the Academia we walked back from the museum to our hotel over the course of the afternoon.  The museum was not close to the hotel, but it was a great way to see the city.  We ate at the restaurant on the right under the green awning over the river. Fantastic view!

 We saw lots of town squares with beautiful buildings and churches.

These newlyweds were very popular on the river.

Our most amazing dining experience, for so many reasons was at Il Santo Bevitore.  For one the food was amazing.

Second, one of my college roommates grew up in Florence and her friend owns and runs this amazing restaurant.  I highly recommend it...call them, you will need reservations.

(source)

The service was amazing and we were seated outside on this cute patio.  We chatted with the other couple that was out there and they were very nice.  It was a lovely evening.

And finally, our hotel.  The Hotel David.  I cannot not say enough good things about this hotel.  It is no wonder it is number one on TripAdvisor.

The hotel is precious, the staff is wonderful, the price is great, breakfast is included, and they have happy hour on the patio each evening.  If that was not enough...they welcome you with a hand written note and tiny cake in your room...

...there is a pretty well stocked fridge and snack bar in your room that is complimentary and they have an honor bar downstairs.  When it is not happy hour you can make the drink of your choice and just write it down.  This was definitely tied with one other hotel as my favorite from our trip.  I loved it.  The extra bonus surprise?  A washer dryer...that's right, we left Florence the half way point in our journey with a suitcase full of clean clothes.  Thank you Hotel David.  We enjoyed our stay.

Selfie at the Uffizi.

Ah, Florence.



Have a great day!!

Weekend Recap

I had a very productive weekend and it was great!

I knocked out some projects I had been wanting to do around the house.  First I painted the inside of our pantry door with chalkboard paint.

I am so happy with how it turned out!  I picked up colored chalk (duh, of course) and started using it as soon as it was dry.

One tip for you when working with chalkboard paint, be sure to condition your chalkboard before using it.  Take a piece of chalk and use the side of it flat against the board and cover the entire thing with chalk, then erase.  Then you are ready to use your board.

And yes, I did draw a picture of my dog on the bottom part.  Looks just like her doesn't it?

I thought so too.

I had been wanting a patriotic wreath for my front door.  The summer begins with Memorial Day, ends with Labor Day and has the Fourth of July in the middle; it's the perfect time for some stars and stripes.

For my front door wreath I picked up a grapevine wreath, wired ribbon and a W from Michael's.  I painted my W red and attached it to the ribbon with thumb tacks.  Ta-da.

I really like it.  I also happened to pick up a couple of smaller grapevine wreaths for my patio and driveway door.

I don't think you can ever be too patriotic.  Michael's had the stars on the left wreath on sale for 4 bucks, the stars on the right were $2.99 each and had the Welcome, America and Freedom tags attached to them.  I am pleased with all my wreaths.  :)

The husband and I have an anniversary coming up.  We did a little shopping for his present this weekend.

A custom made barbecue pit.  The husband has been wanting one for a very long time.

I hope he gets one.  Lol.

I hope you had a fun and productive weekend as well!!

Have a fantastic week!

Insta-Friday

Happy Friday friends!!!  I don't know about you, but I have had a crazy busy week and I am so happy the weekend is here.

The week was exciting though...I launched a new blog with the husband called Wells Live Well.

It had been in the planning stages for a while and I am happy it is live.  It is a healthy living blog that will chronicle our lives as we get back in shape.  There's a new recipe up there today for baked tilapia.

Yum.

I have definitely been in the summer mood this week.  We all went swimming at our friend's house.

Awe, Sammy and Freddy.

My new Mary Engelbreit mouse pad came and my office desk is now in the spirit.

And I so wanted one of the pelicans I saw at HEB.

But I resisted.

I have been trying to teach my mom how to text message on her new phone that the husband and I got her for her birthday.

She says interesting things.  LOL

My sister posted this on Instagram this week, I stole it because I thought it would be great to share here as well.

Have a fantastic weekend!!!

Thursday Thoughts

First of all, fun news.  The husband and I launched our new blog Wells Live Well this week.

Yay!  All of my recipes and healthy living posts will now be posted on that site.  If you are interested in those types of posts, we'd love for you to follow us there.

Yesterday Patriots Junk Removal came and picked up all the junk we removed from the garage.

This is their second visit to our house since we moved in.  I love them, they are great.  If you are ever in need of a service like this and you are in Houston call them.  The bonuses of using their services?  They recycle, they are BBB accredited, they have great prices, and they were founded and run by Veteran's.

The guys that came to our house both times were Navy vets like the husband and that was very cool.

I feel lighter having all that junk out of our lives.

I have several projects I want to work on this weekend.  I am trying to choose:

• paint the inside of the pantry door with chalk board paint
• sand and paint a drop leaf table I found in the garage clean out
• paint the front door green
• clean out the den/spare bedroom closets

Oh the choices!!  What to do?

I hope you are having a great week.  It's almost Friday!!!