Who Owns Congress

Who Owns Congress: "

A seating chart of the Senate and House, organized by who they have accepted the most campaign contributions from. The person by person descriptions are interesting.

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Ciao Firenze - going to Roma

I loved the Ponte Vecchio shops' 'closing up' - whom ever does woodwork in this city does a great business. Between this kind of stuff and the *HUGE* doors to every building...

Had a great time in this ancient city of Florence. So much we didn't get to, so much we did see and still want to see that we will definitely be back.

Luckily the weather was simply perfect - we hope to get this lucky in Roma, perhaps with not as much heat as I think we will find. This shot of the Ponte Vecchio was from the Uffizi gallery - we enjoyed it *somewhat*, a tad bit too much 'Madonna and Child' for my taste but several Michelangelo's worth seeing.

We highly recommend going to the Cappelle Medicee - first, for the several Michelangelo sculptures and second - to see a burial site you will *never* see the likes of anywhere else.

Simply beautiful.

As it was our last night here - and is my tradition to attempt - we went up to Piazzale Michelangelo after sunset to capture a few night-time city shots.

PS - Maddie also highly recommends the 'blood orange gelato' but it is very hard to find...

More Italy

This first photo is the restaurant Vinanzio on top of the 'road' - a wild ride up!

Fantastic day out with some new friends and a guide, Marco. We drove up into the mountains of Carrara and then even further after seeing the marble being extracted - went to Colonnata and had the *best* lunch @ Ristorante Vinanzio (a 2010 Mobil Guide choice, which if you saw just how far you have to go to 'find' this place, is a amazing feat unto itself!)

We past a road side of a quarry and 'souvenir' shop where they had all kinds of marble items for sale. The quarry

was actually working while we watched. Could not see down

into the 'hole' but could hear all the hammering and such and then the crane moved some slabs up.

After the ride to the top we ate wonderful home made pasta, drank some chianti (1990 Ruffino Reserva) and *then* we had a limon sorbet for desert. This was the lightest, fluffiest sorbet you can imagine. As Maddie said on her first bite: 'its like a melody in your mouth'!

Beautiful countryside, lovely company of Sandy and Kay and a great guide in Marco made this a lifetime memorable day here in Italy.

Che bella giornata! Thank you Sandy and Kay, glad we bumped into you at lunch yesterday.