Florence

David signed us up for two walking tours, which ended up being a very good idea. Our first day in Florence, we had a four hour walking tour that covered most of Florence, followed by lunch, and then a tour of Michaelangelo's David.

The walking tour gave us an excellent overview of Tuscany: who are the Medici's, what are these crests we keep seeing on buildings, etc. The tour guide had a seemingly limitless supply of stories about the city. I started becoming suspicious at all the commonly known phrases that seemed to originate from Florence. For instance, "saved by the bell" comes from the story of a woman that buried alive, but was able to ring a bell so that someone could hear her and dig up the grave. The phrase "I ate at a little hole in the wall" refers to the small doors next to the kitchen where wealthy families would hand out scraps to beggars. You get the idea. Regardless of their authenticity, all the stories were captivating.

This is a famous boar fountain that supposedly tells you how long it will be until you return to Florence.

We heard many stories of tempermental artists. Donatello was high on the list of divas. There was a story that he had made a statue and he was showing it to the patron on a rooftop. The patron made some criticisms of the statue and Donatello said, "You're right. It's junk." and shoved the stature off the rooftop and letting it shatter to a million pieces. My hero.

A Donatello Statue

The Duomo

The Front of the Duomo

The inside of the Duomo. This should give you sense of the size.

Inside the Duomo

Inside the Duomo

A Statue of Medusa in one of the main squares

For the afternoon, we had two major events for which unfortunately, I cannot show any photographs: Michaelangelo's David and the Uffizi Gallery. Both were breathtaking. I have had experiences in the past in which I looked at a major piece of artwork and said "I don't get it." Not the case with Michaelangelo's David. Our guide also did a very good job explaining the context and what Michaelangelos was attempting to do with the sculpture. It really is one of those "run, don't walk" kind of things.

And the Uffizi had some amazing pieces of artwork: Several Botticelli's including "Birth of Venus", Michaelangelo's Pieta, and many others.

The ceiling of the entrance to the Uffizi

The one place that I could get a lot of photos that actually turned out well was in the baptistry of the Duomo.

The doors of the baptistry

The ceiling of the baptistry

The ceiling of the baptistry

The ceiling of the baptistry