On another recommendation from Tia, we hiked up to the Piazzale Michelangelo, in the Oltrarno district of Florence, south of the river Arno, to watch the sunset on Monday. The large square bears one of the two copies of Michelangelo's famous "David" sculpture in the city of Florence (this one in bronze) and offers great views over the city.
David No. 1
Pinocchio (the book was written by Carlos Collodi, in Florence) by the sunset
City shot
We were extremely glad to get photos of the David-replicas, as you are not allowed to take photographs [apart from the entryways] in either the Accademia (which houses the real David) or Uffizi galleries, which we visited on Tuesday.
On many others' advice, we had pre-booked tickets and thus did not have to wait in the queues for either gallery... a MUST if you visit either of these, even in low-tourist season (currently, we are in moderate tourist season but there are still tons of people!).
The Uffizi Gallery was built adjacent to the Medici Palace for Cosimo I de Medici as a collection of offices and completed in 1581. Over the ensuing years, the building became used as a gallery to display works of art commissioned by and collected by the wealthy Medici family and is now one of the most visited galleries in the world. The collection (mainly paintings, but lots of marble busts, sculptures, and tapestries, too) includes work by da Vinci, Michelangelo, Botticelli, and even Rembrandt.
Uffizi (legal photo)
Botticelli's The Birth of Venus (internet photo)
The Accademia is a smaller gallery which actually had a very nice Musical Instrument Museum, but which is famous for the striking marble David (over 5m tall, on a large pedestal).
(internet photo)
While both K and I enjoy browsing art, we are not people to spend 4 hours in an art museum. However, the statue of the biblical David is astounding and we definitely marveled at it for more than a few minutes. It was chiseled by Michelangelo in about 3 years out of a basically abandoned piece of marble, and originally stood in the main town square (Piazza della Signoria) until 1873, when it was moved to the gallery for better protection.
Here is the second Florentine David replica, placed in the Piazza della Signoria in 1910
Here are some more pics of Florence's architectural wonders:
Palazzo Vecchio (town hall)
Basilica di Santa Croce (Holy Cross Cathedral)
This is the main Franciscan Church in Florence and the largest Franciscan Church in the world. It has sixteen chapels, lots of more art, and the tombs of many prominent Italians, including Nicolo Machiavelli, Dante Aligheri, Michelangelo, Galileo, and Rossini.
Michelangelo's Funerary Monument
Dante
Choir stalls
The Basilica also houses the Scuola del Cuoio (leather school), where you can see artisans at work (and gasp at the 200-euro wallets).
We also visited the opulent Capelle Medicee (Medici Chapels), part of the Basilica de San Lorenzo, which were built to include tombs for the wealthy Florentine family members.
Some more sights of glorious Florence:
The Arno River (from Ponte Vecchio)
And other delectable Florentine treasures:
Cream croissants
Cappucino (best drunk standing up at a bar like a true Italian-- apparently this is almost exclusively a breakfast drink in Italy and it is kind of frowned upon as a post-tomato-y-meal drink [a rule which I broke]).
Pasta
(although Kelvin didn't participate, I had an awesome gorgonzola ravioli last night and am loving the cheese here! He had wild boar [cinghiale] instead, which was also delicious!)
... and, our favorite....
(no, I am not double-fisting. Kelvin had to take the photo and I was just "watching" his gelato for him!)
