Hello .... Florence

Kristina wanted to start a blog together. So here we go. We're both signed up as authors here, so some entries will be from me and some from her. To make it even more exciting, we might even switch between English and German. We'll see. That is actually a recurring question. We want to do things for our whole family, but then you have to pick a language. So we end up doing stuff in English, because my family have no German and Kristina's can so varying degrees English, aber manche Sachen werden wir trotzdem in Deutsch schreiben, besonders Kristina. Wenn ich zu viel auf Deutsch schreibe, dann wird Kristinas Familie lernen, wie schlecht mein Deutsch wirklich ist. So welcome.

Okay, so that this post has some meat, I'll also write a bit about our recent trip to Florence. It was awesome. Really beautiful, amazing artwork and incredible ice cream. I really enjoyed the Uffizi Museum. There is so much classic Renaissance art in Florence

that when we came back home and looked through a History of Painting book, we saw more than 50% of the pictures in this book there in Florence. Many of these paintings are ones that I've seen my whole life in history classes and what-not, like the "Birth of Venus" by Botticelli, and other works by Titian, Michelangelo, Caravaggio, and others.

But I think what I enjoyed the most was just walking through the city, enjoying the beautiful squares with amazing statues and fountains. Our favorite square was the Piazza della Signoria, in front of the Palazzo Vecchio and Uffizi. It was somehow separate from the busy part of the city. One evening we came through this square and a street performer was set up in one corner singing Paul Simon and the Beatles. It was beautiful, we could hear this quite beautiful music as we wandered through the entry to the Palazzo. The entry courtyard had some beautiful statues and decor. I found it to be quite romantic.

Whenever we make such a trip (like when we went to Paris), Kristina says

that we don't have to go to a nice restaurant everyday, but once she wants to go to a nice place. The second night there, we visited the little restaurant Pepo, which we had found in our guide book. When we got there, it was completely empty. I was a little uncertain about going there, with restaurants empty is often a bad sign, right? But then I checked the hours, they opened at 7 pm and it was like five after. I was soon glad that we were there so early because the place filled up. We spent a wonderful two hours wandering through seafood appetizers (caviar, pickled herring, and friends), an Italian Schnitzel, grilled chicken with Parmesan slices (yes it is possible to slice, not sure how they did it, but they did), ending in at a rich, wonderful slice of chocolate cake. It was so great to relax and enjoy really amazing food. It was so good, we didn't have room for ice cream afterward. Before coming, we were wondering whether the ice cream really is better in Italy. (The crepes in Paris weren't much better than the ones in Mainz.) Let me just say, I wouldn't go to Florence just for the ice cream, but you wouldn't be disappointed if you did.