"From Boboli Gardens"

24 hours in Florence is madness!  I could spend 24 days and still just scratch the surface!  While there, we spent an afternoon in Fiesole, north of town, exploring a monastery that St. Francis visited and ruins of a Roman amphitheater.  

My best friend, Mark Gingerich, and I have been taking annual painting trips together for the last 8 years.  In 2013, we had plans to go to Europe but complications arose to dash them.  Ironically, we both eventually ended up in Europe at the same time.  Even more ironic was the fact that we later learned we were both in Florence the same day!  Mark and his wife Shana were here in the Boboli Gardens, while Ellen, our friends the Yapps and I were way in the distant background of this painting in Fiesole.  Without cell phones, we didn't realize the amazing "coincidence" until comparing notes back in Ohio almost a month later!  I got pictures looking south to the city, while Mark got his looking north.  We traded some photos for me to do this painting, under Mark's excellent tutelage.