Florence (Jan 27)

Florence is a big city (400,000), but it feels like a small town. It's a lovely day trip from Siena. The train ride from Siena to Firenze (Florence) is beautiful...more of the Tuscan hillside. Have you ever seen the movie "Under the Tuscan Sun"? It looks just like that, and I found myself having an inner dialogs just like the main character.

This was a day of walking and museums. Some of the streets still had Christmas decorations up, and that was fun to see. The first museum was the Museo del Bargello. It was a nice layout and easy to follow. There were descriptions of the art in English, so you definitely do NOT need to purchase the guidebook here. Also, you only need about 1.5 hours to see everything. There was a Michaelangelo room and a Donatello room. The bronze statue by Donatello was from around 1450, and was the first male nude statue in over 1000 years! That must have caused some commotion!

The next stop was the Galleria Dell'Accademia. This one is famous for Michaelangelo's David, which we estimated was about 5 meters tall! That's 2.5 Andrews!! He's known for a part which is disproportionately small, but he, as a whole, is huge!! :) Michaelangelo worked on this piece of marble that 2 other artists had started on and rejected! There were other things here worth seeing, so this is a must see when in Florence!

Then we followed Rick Steve's "Renaissance Ramble" which took us past the famous Firenze Duomo (photo) ended near the Uffizi Gallery and the Ponte Vecchil (Bridge-see photo). The bridge was pedestrian only and had shops lining both sides. It was like an outdoor mall, with mostly jewelry shops! Hope that bridge never collapses or it will be quite expensive!





Outside the Uffizi are statues of some of the famous Florentines. Among them were Donatello, Leonardo DaVinci, Michaelangelo, Dante, Macciavelli, Amerigo Vespucci, and Galileo.

Our final stop was the Uffizi. It was home to more work by Caravaggio, which is dark and sometimes troubling. This museum also had a great layout and is worth about 1.5 hours. Then, back to Siena for the night.