past few days.

We spend the day at the Galleria degli Uffizi on Wednesday (Gallery of the Offices). It was pretty fantastic. The Uffizi were the offices of the Medici family...boy did they run Florence and Italy in general!!

The gallery is divided up in chronological order starting with art from the Middle Ages and ending with Raphael and the culmination of the Renaissance.

I got to see paintings by Giotto, Leonardo Da Vinci, Botticelli (THE BIRTH OF VENUS IS AWESOME), Michelangelo (the only painting he ever did is in the Uffizi; he did tons of frescoes, but only one painting), Raphael and Caravaggio. I've seen a lot of art since I've been here and I've gotten tired of it, but I really didn't get tired of it that day. It was nice to see the highlights and I really feel as though I'm appreciating the art more. Much better than Art Appreciation at HU.

Dr. Garner's son Ben got here today - Mona Lee stood at the window at 12 pm today with her binoculars watching for him to come in. He got here a little before 2 and she absolutely lit up. (I also received a great hug from Mrs. Brenda through him!) We all went out to Gallo's tonight (the people that were left, them, me, tyler, Leigh, Riccardo and Nick). Gallo's still has the best pizza hands down.

After dinner we rode back to the villa and we made brownies...we bought ingredients at the grocery store this afternoon and Riccardo got his mom's brownie recipe and we all baked and they were SO good. Leigh and I also made trail mix and Ritz crackers with peanut butter (we opened it today!)...I think we ate more of the crackers and peanut butter than actually got saved.

We are leaving for Rome in the morning and then flying to Barcelona.
Over the next week we'll be in Spain, France and Switzerland. I'm pretty excited. The weather is supposed to be at least semi-okay everywhere. My bag is packed and I have tons of room. I'm really learning how to stuff things into every crevice.

PS: Mom, those vacuum seal bags were the best thing I brought to Huf.

Until next time - hope I get to all my destinations at the right times! AHH.

CIAO!