There was a procession for St. John's Day (I think) the day we went, so the crowds were enormous!
The Baptistry right behind the Duomo.
Griffin's reaction to hearing what we were doing for the day.
Maggie and Ellie on our way to the Academy Galleria to see the David. The lines were so long we decided that we were okay seeing the replica in the Piazza della Signoria on our way to the Uffizi.
The Piazza della Signoria with the fake David
The fake David
It's no "lamb and the lion," but what about the "the pigeon and the lion"?
What we ate for lunch. Notice that the sandwiches are not refrigerated, but they were slug-free. The fruit was excellent!
You may remember from the Rome post that I love posing with street performing statues. There were three in a row outside the Uffizi. John took a photo of one and video of the other two. They scared Ellie (you'll notice I'm always the one close to them), but I love it!
The Uffizi houses The Birth of Venus by Botticelli, as well as other works by Titian and Caravaggio. We waited in line for two hours (going back and forth to see the statues in the piazza and grab some lunch, as well as visiting Ponte Vecchio). I was so proud of how well Griffin did in the museum. He stayed with me the whole time and hardly complained. The worst part of the whole experience is that the art is on the second floor, so you walk up what seemed like five flights of steps (and there were a lot in each flight!) before reaching the gallery.
The Ponte Vecchio used to house butcher shops, but now it's filled with jewelry and souvenir shops. It was built in its present form in 1345 and is the only bridge that wasn't destroyed by the Nazis in their Italy withdrawal.
As we were leaving, we came upon this sight in the tunnel leading to the train station.
This woman had collapsed from heat exhaustion at the bottom of the stairs. We hollered for Terri and she promptly assessed the woman and her situation. We decided that it was good carma because since we spent that little bit of extra time, we were able to make our train without any problem!
At days' end, Kevan looked at his pedometer and realized that we had walked nearly 10 miles that day! From that time on, John and I set the pedometers on our phones and kept track of our daily mileage. Needless to say, Griffin again ate everything on his plate. We ate at a local restaurant that became a family favorite. We ate there four of the remaining seven nights! What astounded me was how much water we would drink each night. I know we sweated it off because I felt the river flowing down my back! When we came in, they would bring two bottles of water: one with "gas" or bubbles, and one without. Not many of us drank the frizzante water, so we would down the plain water in seconds. By the time we left, they knew that it was almost a 1:1 ratio (one bottle of water per person), and at 3 euro a bottle ($4.50), they made up for our lack of alcohol in water alone.
It was here that Ian had his first calzone, something the father of his best friend told him he had to try while in Italy.
My favorite meal there was the gnocchi with gorgonzola and nuts. It was probably the most delicious meal I've ever had. Since the Griesemer group was heading off to Venice for three days, we decided to join them for the trip down, so day 8 was to Venice!
The train was great--a double-decker with awesome air conditioning. Most of our trips were about an hour long, and this was a pleasant ride.
The streets were beautiful and clean, some of our favorite on the trip.
We took off walking to see the Basilica of San Vitale, an amazing Byzantine church completed in 548 A.D. It is the only major church from the period of Emperor Justinian to survive virtually intact. No pictures that we took can capture even a smidgen of what our eyes took in, but here are a few.
We went from the Basilica to the Mausoleum which was maybe 50 yards away. This was completely dark inside except for a few very small lights and the natural light coming in through a few marble "windows" in the entryway walls.
As it was lunch time, we took off for a little eatery on the way to our next stop, the Baptistry. We got separated from the Clawson group, thinking they would be following right behind. As we were eating and I stepped away to have Pat talk to Isaac on the phone, Maggie got a bit of a surprise. John noticed out of the corner of his eye a slug that had crawled out of her sandwich and onto her plate. Needless to say, her appetite was immediately diminished and she gave up her sandwich for a pre-packaged ice cream cone!
The Palace of Theodoric was our final stop. I'm sad to say that the majority of our pictures from here were blurry, so I've pulled some pictures from some other family members.
If we had the opportunity, I think John and I would spend a week just in Ravenna. Again, a camera can't capture what your eyes and brain can hardly comprehend. As Kirsti said, the trip wouldn't have been complete with this trip to Ravenna.
Not very familiar with what it was like, I ordered a, well, what I thought was a reasonable portion of the chocolate fudge flavored gelato. After all, I can put down a love-it size Cold Stone treat in one sitting and that's nearly a pint of ice cream. Pat looked at me leeringly after I got my order and said, "You just got one flavor?" Upon completing my first spoonful, I knew I was in trouble. It was like frozen jell-o pudding, rich and creamy. Ellie had the same thing and within a few minutes, was nearly covered in it as it melts pretty darn quick. We kept grabbing napkins, but it was dripping everywhere and each time she tried to clean up, more of it smeared. I would say that after eating maybe a third of it, I was completely stuffed, and had learned to ALWAYS incorporate two or three flavors. But it was amazing!
Ethan, Robby Clawson (son of Michael and Pri), Jonathan, and Griffin
Mandy (Griesemer), Tabitha and Brandon Rohner; Mom and Dad
Elizabeth, Terri and Kevan Clawson; Priscilla, Michael and baby Gabriel Clawson with Robby on the other side of the table
Since we arrived during the sacrament, we gathered in the overflow room--which is also the Relief Society room and is air conditioned--so put could translate for us. We filled the room to capacity and watched the air conditioner struggle to keep all the warm bodies cool. When the meeting finished, we all went downstairs to gather for a family meeting.
Mom did a slide show of our family accomplishments since the last time we were together, we visited, and then ate a ton of pizza! When the others left to go back to the hotel, my family went to hang out with Pat and his family at their apartment. It gave us an opportunity to download our pictures and videos, as well as let Griffin and Ethan play Lego Indiana Jones on the Xbox. 
