Today was to be a day full of culture and rain. We had purchased supplies to have breakfast at our apartment before driving back to Florence for the day (the Italians know the city as Firenze). We were a bit nervous about parking, but luckily we found a parking garage near the Uffizi Gallery that we were headed to. We dropped off the car and immediately went to Uffizi to pick up our tickets and then made our way inside.
Part of Uffizi:
Some of the highlights of Uffizi Gallery include: Botticelli's Birth of Venus, Botticelli's Primavera, Leonardo Da Vinci's Annunciation, and his Holy Family, among thousands of other pieces of art. We had been walking around for a couple of hours we decided to take a break in the cafe. We enjoyed a drink and pastry and some good views over the city before diving back into the gallery. When we were done we walked towards the Duomo. On the way we passed through Piazza della Signoria and saw one of the replicas of David and many other huge statues. I did not realize how big David was going to be, but the real one and the 2 replicas are each 17 feet tall. We took some pictures and admired all of the statues before continuing on.
Piazza Della Signoria, me & Greg with David replica:
Piazza della Signoria:
Hercules by Bandinelli, the only original left:
Neptune fountain by Michelangelo:
At the Duomo we saw the amazing bronze doors of the Baptistry called the Gates of Paradise. We tried to go into the Museo Dell'Opera but they were closing up for the day. The weather was not looking very nice so we decided to go ahead and grab some lunch. We ducked into a place close by called The Yellow Bar just in time. As we were sitting there waiting to order the skies opened up and it was not only raining, but hailing as well. Greg had fagioli all'uccellieto (cannolli beans in tomato sauce) that came served in a large frying pan, it was very tasty.
Bronze doors of the Baptistry:
The Baptistry:
Front of Duomo:
Tower of Duomo:
After lunch we proceeded to walk through the San Lorenzo Market, darting in and out of tents in between the rain drops. It was now time to go to Accademia Gallery to see the real David statue. When we got in we saw not only David (which was super impressive) but lots of other Michelangelo statues as well. Accademia wasn't nearly as big as Uffizi so we didn't spend too much time there.
When we left we walked over to Cariba for some Sicilian style gelato (more ice milk than ice cream). Once we had devoured our gelato we headed to Palazzo Repubblica and saw the famous boar statue and down onto Ponte Vecchio. This is mainly full of gold shops so we didn't purchase too much, but we did still look. We were about wiped out so we headed towards the car, stopping to pick up a few items for dinner, and then drove home. We spent another evening cooking at the flat and just hanging out and enjoying our time together.
The Boar near Palazzo Repubblica:
Ponte Vecchio:
Closed shops look like little treasure chests on Ponte Vecchio:
Uffizi from Ponte Vecchio:
1 comment:
Did you find the David museum so unadorned and almost lost? Almost like they had no idea where they were going to put it for display.
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