Being tourists

Chris' classes ended a few days before we had to leave Siena, so we took the opportunity to act like real tourists and see the sights! We plotted out our route and with map and camera in hand we set off!

We hadn't gotten any further than the front door of our apartment building and we ran into a parade! This festive group had drummers and 'color guard' with plenty of flags to wave and lots of Italian spirit!

Arthur was mesmerized by the drummers!

Our first stop was a beautiful cathedral just down the street from our apartment. This church has such an interesting design with the black and white stripes you can see on the outside carried throughout the interior as well. It was full of paintings and sculptures, it is amazing to see such history that is so well preserved. I took some pictures inside, but because of the dim lighting they didn't turn out very well...

I loved the detailed stone work and carvings around the outer door ways.

Stopping for lunch at a nice cafe with a fantastic view!

Arthur figured out a new way to ride in his stroller and was happy as a clam! I'll have to remember this little trick the next time he doesn't want to sit in his stroller and be pushed around!

Here are a couple of the pictures from inside the cathedral, the art work was incredible!

This is one of the oldest pulpits in Europe, it was made in the late 1300s. The carvings were so intricate, it was really breathtaking.

Arthur loved this store window, and I must say it really seemed to capture some of the feel of our time in Italy!

Arthur was so exhausted after our first day of sightseeing that he literally just crashed as soon as home was in sight!

The next day was took a train ride up to Florence. Chris has always wanted to go there, and I must say the sights were pretty incredible. But, it was much hotter there than in Siena and there were A LOT more tourists. I think I can safely say that we didn't actually see any real Italians in Florence, just a whole lot of Americans! It was like suddenly being in a much fancier version of Oklahoma.
So this is one of the cathedrals that we viewed in Florence. It looks very similar to the black and white cathedral in Siena and was just as amazing.

The courtyard of an old church we visited.

We had the best pizza at a restaurant in Florence, and even though they both look disgusted in this picture, Chris and Arthur loved it!

A fun drinking fountain in the middle of an intersection of buildings.

We took a break and bought a big chunk of fresh watermelon from a small produce store we found in our wanderings around the city.

Chris and I (and no Arthur was not the one taking the picture)

David, the famous Michelangelo sculpture (this is a replica of the original).

We visited the Loggia della Signoria in Florence, which was a large courtyard full of famous sculptures.

These large sculptures are really breathtaking!
This was Arthur's favorite- the horse.

I was so impressed by the movement of the sculptures. I guess I have mostly seen individuals sculpted standing (like those in the background here) but some of the works with several people holding one another or battling were so elegant and fluid looking- does that even make sense?

The plaza around the sculptures.

And here we have....another cathedral. It was difficult to represent in pictures everything we saw in Florence because most of the places that we toured didn't allow pictures to be taken inside, or the pictures didn't turn out well. All in all, it was a long, hot and tiring day, but unforgettable!