Italy - Day 5 (Firenze)

Tuesday mainly consisted of museums, shopping, and eating. We started off with a Tony-guided tour of the Uffizi Gallery, which is home to some of the world’s greatest Renaissance Art. Some of my favorite pieces were Annunciation by Leonardo de Vinci and the Holy Family by Michelangelo. Michelangelo has only 4 known easel works so it was really neat to see the one in Florence since I saw two others in London (the last one is in Texas).

(Annunciation - I stole this picture off the Internet.)

For lunch a group of us grabbed pizzas and paninis from a little café and had a picnic on one of the bridges. There was a little ledge that went out over the water that we sat on and enjoyed our meal. It was fun just to chill in the warm sun.

(We had a small little photoshoot.)

The afternoon was spent demolishing the San Lorenzo market in round two. That market is a dangerous, dangerous place I tell you what.

After some valuable shopping time Tony took us to the Accademia where we saw the famous David sculpture by Michelangelo. The story of David and Goliath holds special importance to the city of Florence and so Michelangelo made a 27 foot statue to commemorate it. After seeing the statue I can now say I’ve seen Michelangelo 3 greatest works in each of his strengths: painting (Sistine Chapel), architecture (St. Peter’s Dome), and sculpture (David).

For supper the group headed to a little family owned restaurant. Liz and I decided to branch out and try a new appetizer – Tuscan bread with pate. Turns out pate is liver. Yum. Haha. It was decent. My main dish was much, much more delicious: ravioli with gorgonzola cheese. The chats we have at supper time with Tony are always delightfully interesting and I remember at this particular meal Liz (from South Dakota), myself (from North Dakota), and Tony (from England) all discussed the differences between South Dakota and North Dakota. Tony is a walking encyclopedia and kept up in the conversation quite well and frankly, sometimes knew more than Liz and I about our own states. Haha.

The rest of the evening was spent relaxing in the hotel and gearing up for Venice!

(Aerial shot of Florence.)