Italy Vacation - Day 9

This morning was a little bittersweet.  We were excited to be moving on to Florence, but we were already missing Venice.  We took our time as we walked to the train station, and found the streets to be just as intoxicating as the day before.  It was fun to be awake when the city still seemed to be sleeping.

Back on the train, headed to see if our car was still in Mestre...thankfully it was!

We got back on the autostrada and headed the correct direction...or so we thought...and conversation was flowing!  Soon we realized, well Trent realized, we'd made an error.  After all was said and done it took us an extra hour to get to Florence...oops!  Maybe it was fate that we made such an error; because otherwise we wouldn't have passed this most adorable city sign... so the day was not lost! 

I had to post this photo.  This is a street!  We didn't even consider going down it when the gps said to turn onto it.  It looked like a private driveway or some scary road that you go down and are never heard from again.  It was so narrow.  We had to turn around when we realized that we were actually supposed to go down it....crazy!!

Florence was a bit hard to navigate with the car at first, but eventually we figured things out and got our car parked near this great park and were able to get to our hotel...the truth is that we were totally lost and couldn't get cell phone service to get proper directions.  We were frustrated, tired and hungry...not a good combo.  However, we did finally get to our hotel and, yes, I'm totally sugar coating this!!

The museums we wanted to attend were only open today, so after checking into our hotel, we rushed right back out.  I do want to say that we stayed at a quirky little place, Hotel Cassi, run my a mother and son.  It was a great little find!!

We went to the Accademia first.  The museum houses a lot of statuary, but we came to see the big dog.  This is where the original of Michelangelo's David is housed.  The museum was built just for it.  The story goes that Michelangelo had been eying up a chunk of abandoned marble outside of a church that was being worked on.  He asked the clergy for the piece and they said yes...and we all thank them for that!!  Of course, we weren't allowed to take photos of David, but he is spectacular in every way.  The perfection, size and beauty are beyond words.  When you see it you'll find yourself whispering because somewhere deep within your soul it resonates and you are able to recognize the work of genius.  It truly is a masterpiece. 

Along the walls are a few of Michelangelo's other unfinished works.  It was so interesting to see the process of how Michelangelo sculpted.  It has been said that Michelangelo was a workaholic, often working through the night.  He believed he was a tool of God, responsible only for chipping away at the stone until the intended sculpture emerged.  I have to say that this is true, you can tell by looking at the unfinished works, the figures really seem to be emerging from the stone...it's a magical sight.

Next we headed over to the Piazza Signoria where you can see "fake David" outside.  Not nearly as impressive.

I had to take a few snap shots of the local architecture in this piazza.  It was gorgeous and different from what we've seen up to this point.  Florence is where the Renaissance is said to have started, thus becoming the place where the modern world began.  The Renaissance began here for good reason.  Wealthy because of its cloth industry, trade and banking; powered by a fierce city-state pride (locals would pee into the Arno River with gusto, knowing rival city-state Pisa was downstream); and fertile with more than its share of artistic genius (Michelangelo, da Vinci, Dante, Donatello and Machiavelli to name a few).

The Duomo

We made our way to the Uffizi Gallery.  This gallery houses the greatest collection of Italian paintings anywhere and features works by Giotto, Leonardo, Raphael, Caravaggio, Rubens, Titan and Michelangelo, and a roomful of Botticellis, including his Birth of Venus.  The Birth of Venus did not disappoint either.  I was especially excited to see this painting and I thought it was wonderful.  We are so luck to have been able to have an opportunity like this!

Finally we had to see the Ponte Vecchio.  You can't come to Florence without going across it!  This is the most famous bridge in town.  It's lined with shops filled with jewelry, leather & scarves.

**Florence hot chocolate...4