Pitti Palace and Train to Rome.

Pack up, check out, and put our luggage outside the room to retrieve at 2:30 pm.

Breakfast and then catch the CitySightseeing Tour Bus to Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens.

Enter by the Formal Gardens and eventually find the Palace.

View the Costume Museum, the Silver Museum and then walk up the hill
to the highest point of the garden and eat a granola bar. . .

The Palazzo Pitti and Boboli Gardens

Piazza Pitti 1

This enormous palace is one of Florence's largest architectural monuments. The original palazzo was built for the Pitti family in 1457, designed by Filippo Brunelleschi and built by his pupil Luca Fancelli. The original construction consisted of only the middle cube of the present building (the middle seven windows on the top floor). In 1549, the property was sold to the Medicis and became the primary residence of the grand ducal family. The palace was then enlarged and altered; from 1560, Bartolomeo Ammannati designed and added the grandiose courtyard and two lateral wings. Under Cosimo II de' Medici, the layout of the piazza and opening up of the view were begun. The facade then assumed its present appearance, except for the two projecting wings, added by the House of Lorraine in the early 18^th century. Behind the palace lie the famous Boboli Gardens.

Today, the Pitti Palace houses some of the most important museums in Florence: on the first floor is the Palatine Gallery, containing a broad collection 16^th and 17^th century paintings, and the Royal Apartments, containing furnishings from a remodeling done in the 19^th century; on the ground floor and mezzanine the Silver Museum (Museo degli Argenti) displaying a vast collection of Medici household treasures; and the Gallery of Modern Art is on the top floor, holding a collection of mostly Tuscan 19^th and 20^th century paintings. In the separate Palazzina del Cavaliere on the upper slopes of the Boboli Gardens is the Porcelain Museum, while the Palazzina of the Meridiana contains the Costume Gallery, a showcase of the fashions of the past 300 years.

At that point I become totally disoriented in finding our
way to the place we entered the garden. Hurry to catch the tour bus back
to get our bags at the B & B. Drag our bags to the city bus
which takes us to the train station. Just enough time to get a small shake at
McDonald's which allows us to pay to use the bathroom
and sit down until our train comes.

Pleasant but cramped train ride to Rome. Lovely countryside.

Get into Rome about 5:00 and must navigate our way to our hotel.
Carol has the route mapped out but there is confusion when we come out of the
station and we can't figure out what road we are on and which direction
to face.

GoogleMaps saves the day and we drag our suitcases through a
very crowded city to our hotel Domus Romana following the little arrow on the screen. 

We walk through the doorway on a crowded street and find a lush courtyard and a nice room

with air-conditioner turned on and drinks in the frig! Robin found the Domus Romana Hotel and Residence on Booking.com in December. It was a convent, built in 1600.

Via delle Quattro Fontane, 113, Roma

+39 06 489441

Bjarne and Robin look thin and tan and happy to see us.

We eat at a great small Italian Restaurant and hear about their hike through the Dolomites.

Gioia Mia Pisciapiano

Via degli Avignonesi 34
00187 Rome
Italy