Florence

By this time, I feel a little like a stable horse that sees the barn in the distance and starts running home! I'm eager to be home in Guatemala!

Still, here we are in Florence, one of my favorite places in the trip. Much more open and airy than Venice, and more mellow than Rome. There are nice hills in the landscape, and our hotel is right on the beautiful Arno river.

Our hotel, Antica Torre (meaning ancient tower) was our favorite on the trip, lovely, right on the Arno River.  The staff were so warm and helpful, and the room was lovely.  We had a fantastic view of the river, including Ponte Sante Trinita (right by us) and the famous Ponte Vecchio, just upriver.  On the rooftops, there were terraces that overlooked the red rooftops and out onto the mountains, and always with beautiful music playing.  Just idyllic.

Our hotel, Antica Torre, in an old tower - a
beautiful hotel and fantastic view

Here is a blurb about Ponte Sante Trinita, from a link about the principal bridges of Florence:

Named for the church of Santa Trinita nearby, this is probably the third oldest bridge in Florence – although it was rebuilt many times. The way we see it now is the way it was reconstructed after nazi bombing; the design is by Amannati with the patronage of Cosimo de’ Medici and possibly the help of Michelangelo. The elliptical form of the arches has been paraleled to the curve of the top of the tombs in the Medici Chapels. At the center of each arch is a white marble cartouche, and at either end of the bridge there are two allegorical statues representing the four seasons from 1608. After the bombing of 1944, the statues were fished out of the Arno, but the head of Spring has never been found.

Ponte Sante Trinita

Bill and Nancy at a trattoria, where we often ate pizza or
calzones or pasta or grilled eggplant, with wine or beer!

The following photo is the Ponte Vecchio, which has such an interesting story.

Here we are on Ponte Vecchio with Mark and Catherine.

We found these locks everywhere on Ponte Vecchio.  They had names and dates on them. It seems that people put them on the bridge... and throw away the key!  Aww how romantic!  ;-)

There was a fantastic gelato place around the corner.  Delicious!

Our gelateria

Looking out the window at the river

An artist, Asso, that we bought some small paintings from!

Some police officers on the Ponte Vecchio

Even beautiful statuary by the market

We went to the meeting on Sunday, in Spanish.  It was a bubbly group, most are from Spain or Central America, and some Italians who learned Spanish.  We met a couple, and she is originally from Guatemala City. We LOVED them and their little beautiful baby. They even invited us to dinner tonight! We are so excited!  (We have pictures but Bill lost his camera on the plane; we'll post them as soon as it gets sent back to us.)

We go back to Venice tomorrow afternoon (Wednesday), then fly home Thursday to Guatemala City and stay the night there, and a shuttle to Panajachel on Friday!