After a few hours on the regional train, and a jarring cab ride from the train station, we arrived at the apartment we were renting. The apartment was a equal parts cool, and weird. Cool, that it was in an old palace....
...we weird that the layout was sort of like an M.C. Esher painting! But the view from the roof deck was amazing!
(The view from inside the apartment was awesome too!)
We had a little of the day left, so we did some touring.
Palazzo Vecchio
Death mask of Dante Alighieri
Afterwards, we got our first views of the cathedral Santa Maria del Fiore.
The Baptistry doors, Door of Paradise, by Lorenzo Ghiberti. There's a replica on the actual Baptistry, but we also saw the real ones in the Duomo Museum nearby (Museo dell'Opera del Duomo)
We only had 40 minutes to see the Duomo Museum, but we really wanted to try! I really wanted to spend some time with Michelanglo's last Pieta, which is also a self-portrait he made towards the end of his life. (His is face is on the figure of Joseph of Arimathea)
Saint Mary Magdalen Repenting, by Donatello
For dinner our first night we used our American early dinner trick and got a table at another one of Tim's recommendations. It was amazing! We got samples of four salads (so good) then Bob got the sampler pasta which was a little amount of four different pastas. I broke ranks and had mushroom risotto which made me realize that I need more risotto in my life!
And then we got a dessert sampler. Neither one of us will forget that meal anytime soon!
View from our roof deck.
Florence Day Two:
Chocolate croissants on the Ponte Vecchio...
...before our climb up into Brunelleschi's dome.
The view of the Santa Maria del Fiore as we're getting into the dome.
Climbing round and round, the views are getting higher and higher!
The views from the top were stunning!
It was quite dizzying to see the ribs of the dome trail off and out of view!
(We couldn't escape the Duomo, even as we found some pizza for lunch)
After we rested our climbing legs and had some lunch we went to The Academy. We were there to see The David, and we didn't have to look far. He's visible basically as soon as you walk in!
The path to The David you past several of Michelangelo's "Prisoners".
They really felt like they were trying to break free from the stone.
And they made a perfect contrast for the perfection of The David.
Photos don't do him justice, it's the single most perfect piece of art I've ever seen in person.
We squeezed in one more museum before calling it a day, The Bargello.
Where we saw many, many more Davids!
David, by Donatello
David by Verrochio in the foreground and another (later) David by Donatello in the distance.
Our first couple days in Florence were so wonderful! It feels so well preserved! It was easy to imagine what it was like when Michelangelo was roaming the streets.
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