The last evening in Florence

Here's your initial post card, folks. I am sorting through about 1200 photos so give me some time. Also there is jet lag. We had a great time, saw about three churches and/or museums per day, walked everywhere, and both came down with colds at the end. Tomorrow: The Mikado at Popejoy here in Albuquerque. I may suffer a surfeit of culture.

For those who missed it on Facebook, I made the comment to Bill that if I see one more effing Madonna I'm gonna puke. One can see too much Renaissance art at one time.

Lots to remember and ponder. We ate well, consistently, and came home with a few extra pounds. I want to cook more, so that part of the inspiration worked. There were statues that made us weep.

Before any more posts on the trip to Italy, discussed for three decades and finally taken, I want to thank two of my high school teachers who spurred the interest and gave me the background to appreciate what I saw. Thank you Betty Wiley and Alan Amend, Latin and humanities, respectively.

That I could view Bernini's statue of Aeneas bearing his father Anchises as his son Ascanius tags along, leaving the ruins of Troy for an unknown future, I could quote lines from Vergil's Aeneid in Latin and feel the tears streaming down my cheeks. Mrs. Wiley arranged it so Joel Steinberg and I could take Vergil in our junior year by passing Latin 2 as a do-it-yourself summer course. The seeds she planted took root.

Mr. Amend, if I remember correctly I had to do a presentation on Hans Memling and was not that excited about him. One portrait in the Uffizi undid me and I humbly repent. Thank you for teaching us about Renaissance art and how to even conceptualize and discuss art.

--the BB