Florence, Part II

Today was an art-lover's dream. Especially if said art-lover also loves sleeping in late. When we finally got up (and by we I mean Amy and Mike) we headed into the Piazza della Republica to meet our tour guide for the Accademia.

The Accademia's claim to fame is being local address for Michelangelo's David (below). Our tour guide took us through about a century of art history leading up to the Renaissance, and then gave us background on the building, the Medeci family, and Michelangelo himself. We saw a collection of Michelangelo's unfinished sculptures, called the Prisoner (or Slaves). David himself is huge and beautiful, posing and considering his monstrous opponent, Goliath.

After the tour ended, I headed back to the square to meet the next tour while the fam headed to the Duomo. The Duomo was constructed with a huge hole in its ceiling, meant for a dome. Only at the time, no one could construct a dome that large. They built it on faith. Not too many years later, Brunelleschi completed the task.

Mike and Amy climbed the bell tower and got some fantastic views. I guess the climb was pretty tough.

I headed over to the Uffizi Museum with the next tour and had an incredible time. The tour was pretty informative. The guide was a serious Flourentine woman--she takes great pride in her home city and casually bashes other cities and countries. The Uffizi houses one of the greatest Renaissance collections in the world, including works by Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, Titian, and Botticelli (including The Birth of Venus, below).

We played Rummy and ate a great dinner. On the way, we saw a guy with some awesome jeans. We had our favorite waiter tonight--so fun!

On to Rome. Ciao.

Florence, Part I

Leaving Venice was kind of funny. After the mishap with the train in Paris, Dad was anxious. We arrived at the Venezia Mestre train station a full 50 minutes before our train was scheduled to arrive. So we sat... And waited... Once on the train, I was shocked by first class. I've only traveled Europe by Eurail before, and second class is a lot different than the sweet seats in first. They recline. But we couldn't sit down. Our seats were taken, and there was a lot of weird confusion. We felt like we were on stage as the train left the station, and finally found seats elsewhere in the car. Mom got a little green riding backwards, and I politely but assertively informed a guy sitting in one of our seats that he needed to switch with her. Finally the conductor came and moved everybody. They were supposed to be back in car 11. Freeloaders. We settled in and enjoyed the rest of the 2 hour ride to Firenze--Florence.

I think I am destined to get us lost at least once each city. We got a terrific map from the Tourist Information office near the train station. I made the wrong second turn, and our walk to the hotel took twice as long as it should have. It wouldn't have been so bad, but our party included 7 suitcases and one sprained ankle.

We left the hotel in search of the Pitti Palace and its Boboli Gardens. We arrived too late to see the interior of the Palace with its Modern Art Museum, so we toured Boboli. There were quintessential Italian photo ops, fountains, sculptures, and lots of people enjoying a little nookie. Mom loved the views, hated the hills.

We had a lot of fun with this one sculpture.

We headed back over the Arno River via Florence's original and oldest bridge, Ponte Vecchio. It's a weird, huge thing that is beautiful accidently. It's filled with jewelry shops and tourists. We ate dinner off the beaten path and then headed back to the tourist zone for gelatto. I forget how to say, that's stinkin good, in Italian. Yum-mizzi?

Ponte Vecchio in the distance