Ma - I'm a STAR! (Part 2)

Sunday morning, we were up bright and early so we could go on a tour of The Dolby Theater. Did I mention my love for The Oscars? Yes. Ok, so this is one of about a million pictures I had Tim take of the outside for me. 

 Oh look, here's another one...

 Unfortunately (and I'm so serious about this), we couldn't take any pictures inside the theater. Supposedly one of the networks owns all the rights - blah, blah, blah - crushing dreams - blah, blah. LAME!

After our great tour, we found out we could get super discounted tickets to the resident Cirque du Soleil show, Iris, with our tour tickets. We decided to get some for that night and we ended up with tickets in the fourth row, center section, on the aisle. I'm pretty sure someone super famous sat in my seat. Yeah, I shared a seat with like Brad Pitt or something. No big. :-)

Next door, is the famous Grauman's Chinese Theater. This is a picture with Anne Baxter's prints - which was really special for me (I didn't know she was in there) and definitely reminded me of home.

 And I couldn't leave without a picture of the Harry Potter trio - which Tim had to ask some people to move so their shadow wasn't covering it. (It was actually more of a "TIMMY - MAKE THEM MOOOVE!" from me - they got the idea.)

 Proof that Tim was there...

And after all this, we still had about an hour to kill before our Brunch reservation, so we went to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. Points for whoever can name these celebrities. Are you ready?

How'd you do? Pretty easy - yeah, but it was awesome! 

Finally it was Brunch time at our hotel. 

Then we headed out to find The Grove shopping center and the CBS studios, so we would know where we were headed the next morning. While at The Grove, we spotted Olympic Gymnast Shawn Johnson shopping at Nordstrom. Smart girl. And short. Very short. 

Our next stop was Rodeo Drive!

 We looked in some of the boutiques, which sadly, weren't what I was expecting. I say this because we've been shopping in the Ginza district of Tokyo, which is so over-the-top and so overwhelming, that the snooty little boutiques of Rodeo just didn't compare. Later, we found out from friends, that most of the merchandise is "in the back," but I just wasn't as impressed. And surprisingly, it was empty. There was almost no one shopping that day, so we couldn't even people-watch. The upside - CUPCAKES!

We left Rodeo Drive and tried to go see The Beverly Hills Hotel, but all of the surrounding streets were blocked off for an event, so we headed back to our hotel via The Sunset Strip. 

And we ended the night with Iris. Follow this link for a preview video of the show. It was really amazing, but I think for me was seeing it in The Dolby Theater. That was just...awesome. 

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Firenze in the Rain

Before we left for our trip, of course we checked the weather report, and thankfully we were prepared for the rain. And, oh, did it rain!

It was a Sunday, so a number of places were closed, but we forged ahead despite all of this. Our first stop was the Piazza Republica and the famous boar. His nose is rubbed clean from everyone making wishes on it.

 We were heading towards the Uffizi Gallery, so we stopped for a few minutes under the covered walkway to take photos in front of the Ponte Vecchio.

 Unfortunately we couldn't take pictures inside of the Uffizi gallery, but we did take a last-minute guided tour that I swear I would have been completely lost without! "The Birth of Venus" by Donatello was probably the most well-known piece of artwork we saw on our tour, but there were a few more recognizable pieces in the collection.

After our gallery tour, we walked over to the Santa Croce church and the Florence Leather School. The school is located in the old monastery of the church, so despite being in such a well-known location, the entrance was hard to find.

 We ended up making plans to come back the next day to buy our gifts, but we  still had a good time trying to find everything in the rain. We were going to head back toward the Ponte Vechhio to look at the famous gold shops, but I had to have Tim take a picture of the rainfall.

 While I was standing there waiting for Tim to take the picture, I looked over and lo-and-behold, there was the Galileo Museum! The sign on the door said it was closed on Sunday, but when I got a little closer, the automatic door opened right up. I peered inside and someone was sitting at the ticket desk, so we went in! It was pretty empty, but was one of our favorite museums of the whole trip.

 AND when we finished up in there, the weather had cleared up!!

 Along the walkways around the Ponte Vecchio, couples have been hanging locks to celebrate their relationship/marriage. I think it is just so cool and was a little sad we didn't have a lock to hang. Maybe one day? (::hint:: Timmy - Return trip??? ::hint::)

 We browsed the gold shops along the bridge for a little bit, and then I asked Tim if we could head back to the hotel and dry off a little. Along the way, we stopped at Piazza Signoria, where the Uffizi Gallery has set up an outside sculpture museum.

 We headed back to the hotel and Tim spotted this sign and had to take a picture...

 As we were passing the Duomo, I heard Tim call out "Arianna WAIT! There's a rainbow!" And he was right, there was a beautiful, full rainbow arching over the Duomo. It was pretty amazing.

And, yes, if it sounds like it took a long time to get back to our hotel, you are correct. We made a lot of stops and when we did get back, it was nap time. That evening we headed to the train station to book tickets for our trip the next day to Venice and then tried to run to the Ferragamo Museum before it closed. We would have made it, but when we walked in the door, a nice sign was waiting to tell us it was currently under renovation. FAIL! We spent the evening shopping and had dinner at an "outdoor" cafe (it had a large tent up to guard eaters from the elements), before heading back to our hotel and relaxing for the first time during the trip.  

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Florence in a snapshot (or two)...

I hope these pictures from my phone tide readers over until Tim and I have a chance to sort through pictures this weekend. Enjoy!

They take parking seriously!

Obviously the pizza was delicious!

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