Day in Florence and arrival in Venice

Woke up and got an early start on seeing Florence. Took a guided tour of the city. Very knowledgeable tour guide. Here is a picture of Florence from Micalangelo square, Micah in front of Il Duomo, and Me in Michelango square overlooking Florence. We ended the tour seeing Michelango's David and learning a little about renaissance art. Very interesting. The city is beautiful and compact. It seems most people drive motorcycles due to lack of space there. We ate yummy pizza and headed off for Venice (after missing a train due to lack of understanding on our part...this is an adventure, right?) .

Made it to Venice. Got on and off of the water taxi with no problem. My friend Jen gave me a handy tip that it is very confusing to get around here on the streets. Underestimated that... We must have looked confused. An old lady started spouting off in Italian, about what, we dont know. We think that she understood that we were lost. We think that she understood where we were trying to go. We were baffeled by the sight of the "streets". They are not really streets, rather alleys. The old lady continued to spout off about things that we did not understand while leading us down the ally. After a short time we think that she says to "go that way, I am going this way" in Italian of course. We misunderstand. She is irritated. She was telling us to go her way I guess because she pulled Micah with her! We were so confuesd. We came to a corner and she motioned to Micah to stay put. He did not move! He said to me that he was in no position to argue. ( I have never seem him so submissive!) The little old lady showed us our hotel and a resturant across the street for which she give Micah a business card and then made some guestures while still going on in Italian. She must have thought that the more she talked the better we would understand. We were glad to shut the door to the hotel and have that situation behind us. Micah said he was done. We should find out what time the train leaves for Milan and stay in the room until then!:)

We went out for dinner, it was lovely. Walked to St. Marks square. The stars are out and the air is crisp. A wonderful place to be!