florence, italy

We arrived in Florence with no where booked to stay (as we seem to be doing a lot lately!). Our guidebook listed quite a few cheap places all around one area though, so we headed there to check a few out. As always, Rick Steves didn't let us down and we found a great place that was one room of a three bedroom apartement.. it even had a little kitchen. We got there in the afternoon, and headed out to see what sights we could still cover that day. We did a walk all around the town, heading towards the Cathedral and all the many streets and squares around it. There also turned out to be no huge line at the Uffuzi Gallery (as all the guidebooks said there would be), so we walked right in and saw a ton of Italian paintings, including one of my favourite, The Birth of Venus by Botticelli. Since our place had a little kitchen, we made pasta for dinner and I also had some broccoli, which I hadn't had in SO long.. mMmmm

In the morning we headed straight to the Accademia Gallery, which is where Michaelangelo's David is located. I feel silly saying this now, but I didn't realize it was of David as in David and Goliath. I just thought it was some dude! The statue is actually clutching a rock (in an englared right hand as to symbolize the strength given to him by God). Again, there was absolutely no line and we walked right in. You weren't allowed to take pictures, but by now we have both become pretty good at spycam-ing it. You just have to think about it as being your trip and your memories. To me it's worth getting tsk tsked at by the guard person if it means I can have a picture of the David statue! Who knows if I'll have such a chance again.. The statue was pretty impressive.. like 13 feet tall, with so much detail. It was even more impressive because in the room before the one he is in, there are some of his unfinished "Prisoner" statues which are pretty much still big blocks of marble. It's hard to imagine how you would even begin to go about making something so detailed from one giant piece of rock! After that we crossed the Ponte Vecchio bridge and toured the Pitti Palace. We also climbed up the hill to Piazza Michaelagelo for an awesome view of Florence.

While we were walking around near the Cathedral, we saw this film crew set up, so we wandered over to see what was happening. Turns out we became extras in a documentary being filmed for the Discovery Channel. It was about the senses, and there was a blind man from Turkey who had just then drawn the Baptisery (part of the Cathedral) in perspective by feeling a model of it. We were both standing right behind the professor who was narrating, so there's a chance we could be in it, hahah.. It's due to air next year some time so I guess we'll have to keep an eye out for it! In the evening we walked around the huge outdoor Central Market on the way back to our place, where we finished off that bag of spaghetti for dinner. The next day we had a day trip to Pisa planned, which would only be a short train ride away.