Arrival in Florence, Italy

In lieu of flying to Houston then flying to Italy I decided it was easier to stop in Italy on the way back to Houston.

I arrived in France on time and transferred between terminals and had a brief visit to the lounge.

The view of the Alps were wonderful from the sky. I had actually fallen asleep during part of the flight.

Upon arrival in Florence I found that my luggage was delayed.

I'm staying at the Hotel Monna Lisa. The room is acceptable.

We walked down the street and found a restaurant to eat in for lunch. I had pizza. It wasn't great, but it was okay.

We had a few hours free so we visited the Palazzo Pitti museum. It was quite large and the royal apartments were wonderful. They painted the walls and ceilings to make it look like the building was much taller or had more windows.

We then hiked up the dome of the church. Unfortunately it was dark so it wasn't possible to see much of the city from the top, but we did get to see the fresco painted on the ceiling close.

We then walked into the baptistry. The baptistry was more spectacular than the cathedral.