Author Archives: drdzoe

It was a grand day on the Grand Canal. Well, on and about the Grand Canal, anyway. First it was a tour of the Doge’s palace. Lots more art, some pretty impressive rooms, and an arsenal full of various deadly … Continue reading →

A delay in posting today.  Bad internet at this new hotel, but it seems to be working now. We left Florence today. Just to mix things up a bit, we decided to rent a car and do a road trip. … Continue reading →

And so ends another day in Florence.  Nothing too spectacular today: we visited the Palazzo Vecchio, the palace of the Medicis when they first came to power.  We visited a modern art exhibit.  We visited several churches.  We ate a … Continue reading →

Nothing super today, just a lot of enjoyable things in Florence. Our initial goal was to visit the Pitti Palace, but we got a little lost, so first visited St Lawrence’s Cathedral, where Cosimo Medici, the founder of the family … Continue reading →

It is always interesting to see how different artists depict the same story.  And artists love telling the same mythic stories.  This week, I’ve seen at least a dozen versions of the Rape of the Sabine Women, several Davids in … Continue reading →

Today was a day of iconic artworks.  For example, my Venus with Venus: And here’s, well, no.  I can’t really claim to be a David. I was fairly blown away by David, however.  The setting is amazing and the sculpture is just plain … Continue reading →

Today was a travel day.  We moved our base of operations from Rome to Florence.  Which limited our time in both.  So in Rome, all we did was: – Three churches, one of which had another three Caravaggios.  That brings … Continue reading →

We’re on our last full day in Rome.  Our stay has been marvelous.  There’s been three themes: 1. Great art. 2. Amazing history. 3. Great food. Today included all of these. First, the art.  We spent the morning in the … Continue reading →

As I mentioned before, all of our children have already been to Italy.  I realized we’d be seeing things that they already saw, but sometimes that can go too far. To whit: last year Andy was particularly impressed by the … Continue reading →

Today we visited the ancient part of the city.  I loved it. At one point, I told Julie I’d make a terrible gladiator.  My years fencing peaked with me becoming the worst rated foil fencer in Virginia (a long story … Continue reading →