The weather has been very hot in Italy this summer. Rome, Florence, Venice, no matter where we go the weather is hot and humid.

August has ended and September seems to be breezy.

This morning the sky was cloudy and it suddenly started to rain, it only lasted 3 minutes though.
An hour later, it started raining again, and this time heavy rain. I went out to our  small balcony and took some shots.

“Galleria degli Uffizi” or The Uffizi Gallery, is one of the oldest and most famous art museums of the Western world. It is housed in the Palazzo degli Uffizi, a beautiful palace in Florence, Italy.

Today, I was very excited about visiting the Uffizi Gallery! It was a dream coming true.
For an art lover, seeing the works of the Grand Masters (Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Caravaggio, Donatello…) is actually a big deal. And I have to thank my husband for that

We went in the afternoon, not worrying about the long lines in front of the museum, because of our membership in “The Amici Degli Uffizi”. We went to gate number 2, a nice lady handed us our tickets and directed us to the entry.
I was a bit mad because it was forbidden to take photos, and despite that, many couples were taking out their small point & shoot digital cameras and snapping shots secretly. I couldn’t do the same with my 0.703 Kilograms Nikon D90!

We wandered around the rooms and corridors of the Uffizi, amazed by it’s grandeur and beauty, the ceiling frescoes and the large collection of roman sculptures and paintings.

The most popular paintings housed by the museum:

• Sandro Botticelli (Primavera, Birth of Venus,  Adoration of the Magi)
• Leonardo da Vinci (The Annunciation, The Adoration of the Magi)
• Albrecht Dürer (The Adoration of the Magi)
• Michelangelo (The Doni Tondo)
• Raphael (Madonna of the Goldfinch, Luigi de’ Rossi)
• Titian (Flora, Venus of Urbino)
• Caravaggio (Bacchus, The Sacrifice of Isaac, Medusa)
• Rembrandt Van Rijn (The two selfportraits [young & old], and a portrait of an old man)

After checking all the floors and rooms, we were exhausted. Abdallah wanted to check the “Bar” and the terrace. We took some nice pictures of Palazzio Vecchio and had two Espressos and prepared to leave.

We walked back to where we started still admiring the artwork while trying to find the “Uscita” (Exit). But you couldn’t go out the same way you get in. Instead, we had to walk all the way back to the second corridor… Getting out of the museum, however was not going to be that easy. We went down to the seond floor (Abdallah thought that floor was deserted because the windows were all shut from the outside). There we were lead through a maze of more artwork. We found Caravagio’s Medusa shield there for example. We were out of time, so we had to rush out. But after 15 minutes we were still there!

The ground floor wasn’t easier to get out of either. Every time you think you found an exit there would be yet another sign telling you to go to the next room. We went through a maze of gift shops, bookshops, etc, until finally there was the exit taking us to a backstreet somewhere in the center of Firenze.

Here are some photos taken from the Piazza Della Signoria, near the Uffizi Palace.

Do we really live under the same sky? That’s what I kept asking my husband since we came here!

It’s really amazing how different the sky looks in Italy. It’s huge, vast, enormous… amazingly beautiful!
Lebanon is surrounded by the Mediterranean from the west, a series of mountains from the east… so the sky is always bound no matter where you look. Here it’s different, wide spaces with mountains in the far horizon and plains extending as if forever. Maybe that’s why the sky looks larger (to me at least)!

Here are some photos with beautiful Italian skies
I should take a few more to show you what I mean.

It’s been 25 days since we arrived to Italy! Despite how very hectic it was during the past 3 weeks, we enjoyed the vacation and time we spent with our siblings and friends.

I have been trying to start writing our travel journals, as was agreed upon,  since the first day we got here .  While we were still in Lebanon,  Abdallah would ask me everyday:  “you’re going to write a new post everyday,  aren’t you?”.
To be honest, I have been very exhausted by the end of  the each of the 25 days, too exhausted to even think  about what I should write, and now i feel so guilty that so many days have passed by without posting anything on my blog!

Better late than never, right? I will try to write everyday from now on, and also write about the past 3 weeks and try to tell you about our numerous adventures here.

Yesterday we decided to visit the Boboli Gardens of Pitti Palace (Palazzo Pitti), it was the first time we use the  “Amici Degli Uffizi” tickets (which proved to be very practical). Why the Boboli Gardens? well, because I was trying to find somewhere we could hang out,  me wandering around taking photos  and Abdallah working on his laptop.  So I thought that the gardens must have some descent place to sit and enjoy the scenery. It was too HOT! we were barely able to breath. We spent a couple of hours in the gardens, then went out and had lunch in a nearby restaurant and came back to visit the Costume Gallery.
This gallery contains a big collection of theatrical costumes dating from the 16th century until the now. It is the only museum in Italy which details the history of the Italian fashion.

The Palazzo Pitti is a huge Renaissance palace, which was bought by the wealthy Medici family and later became their residence. The palace is divided to several museums and galleries as follows:

• Pitti Palace
• Palatine Gallery
• Gallery of Modern Art
• Costume Gallery
• Silver Museum
• Porcelain Museum
• Boboli Gardens

It is impossible to visit the whole place in one day. So we will have to come back again to check out the remaining works of art.

Yippee!…
We finally got the Italian Visa (My husband & I). And to our surprise, we  were granted a 6 months, multiple entries Visa.
And to add to my happiness,  my sister and big brother got the visas too.

We can’t wait to get there, meet all the friends and attend the International Convention by the name:
‘Keep On The Watch!’ (Mt 24:42)

We will spend 7 days in Rome and 2 whole months in Florence.  I will be posting details on this blog everyday and photos too!
Btw, I think my new DSLR, Nikon D90 will be here tonight!! if my big brother Juliano will arrive today from KSA (but we never know exactly when he’s coming, do we????).

Only 6  more days to go! Gotta start packing …

Catch you later guys!

Pia