Monday, October 20

Wow, another experience that should be on your bucket list. Today we toured the Ringling Museum. John Ringling and his 4 brothers established the Ringling Brothers Circus. It then expanded to the Ringling Bros, Barnum and Bailey Circus. Sarasota was the winter quarters of the circus and John built a large home and museum. When he passed away it was given to the state of Florida. Today FSU manages the estate of several acres. The home was built and furnished in European architecture. Many of the fireplaces, chandeliers and furnishing came from auctions of the rich all over the world.

The Museum is one of a kind. Mr Ringling purchased 600 paintings and built a special building for them. It houses 5 of the 7 known paintings of Paul Rubens, masterpieces!

The circus building contains a miniture circus with hundreds of pieces in a full circus city. It is so huge and complete that the only was to describe it is: GO VISIT IT.

We enjoyed our stay in Sarasota with friends Karen and Dino.