florence

 firenze is one of my very favorite places in italy.  it is such a charming city.  

cute cafes, cool museums, beautiful churches, gorgeous views from on top of the duomo,  great shopping.. i also ate the best pear that i've ever tasted there... so what's not to love? 

and the david... oh, the david.  what a fascinating and beautiful work of art.  michelangelo was a genius.

we have been on multiple day trips to florence, as it is just an hour away from where we live.  these pictures are from a few weekends ago, when we spent the night there.

as always, there will be more photos to come!

on this night in florence, we went to an opera!  it was incredible. i love seeing people perform..  it really inspires me to see god-given talent, developed through hard work, that is being shared with the world!  

it was an interesting seating arrangement (kind of like a theater in the round) and so i was able to watch people's reactions during the show, and that was delightful in and of itself!  there were these ladies on the front row who were eating it all up, smiling and laughing to each other the entire time... one of them was mouthing along the words of the italian opera songs, looking thrilled out of her mind to be there.  it thrilled me to watch them.

there were also some kids on the front row, who would laugh and look up at their parents/grandparents with the sweetest light shining from their eyes, also seeming so happy to be there.  what a lovely little night it was.

{the rest of these pictures were taken on day two of our weekend, after camping...  yes, you heard me right. after we went to the opera, we got on a bus and headed up to a camping site!  pictures of that to come!!}