You are reading KDKB...Killing time with Kaitlynn: When in Florence...Day 6 in Italy

So, on Wednesday morning, we woke up in time to get breakfast, pack up, and get to the Termini for our train ride to Florence. It is about an hour and a half to get there and we had a great time looking out the huge windows as we sped through the Tuscan countryside. We were sitting next to a couple from DC (but originally Panama and Morocco) who had also been married two and a half years. A lovely ride all in all.

We got to Florence and took about a 15 minute walk to our hotel, the Strozzi Palace. It was INCREDIBLE. I had a feeling Florence was going to be even better than Rome in some ways.

Because Florence is so much smaller than Rome, we walked everywhere. And it was lovely. The only thing we had planned for the rest of the day was to see the David at the Accademia. So, we got some lunch at Pugi Pizza in the Piazza di San Marco, where I spent a lovely half hour listening to "The Light in the Piazza" before our reservation to see the David. True happiness :)

Piazza di San Marco

Now, we couldn't take pictures of Michaelangelo's David, but I don't even know if they would've done it justice. There are some amazing, unfinished works by Michaelangelo leading up to the masterpiece, and just seeing the different stages of completion boggles the mind. The smoothness, the veins, the emotion in David's face--all truly inspiring.

Up close you can see the chisel marks--Michaelangleo said that God put the image in the stone, and it was just his job to chip away the excess. He didn't use gridding either--all free form. Incredible.

Excuse the nudity, but look at the difference between the prisoners and the David. Astonishing.

Originally, the David stood outside the Palazzo Vecchio (where a copy stands today which I'll show you later), but it was moved indoors for its protection in the 19th century. The Accademia, still a functioning art school, also houses a musical instrument collection, a plaster model of Giambologna's Rape of the Sabines, and the final exam projects of the current students (pretty impressive stuff).

Rape of the Sabines--the original (shown here) was under renovation, so we saw the model in the Accademia.

Afterwards, we decided to take Rick Steves' Renaissance Walk through Florence. It is such a small place that we could do it in about an hour. The walk starts at the famous Duomo, which was the first Renaissance dome and the model for all other domes to follow.

The tall, skinny part is the Bell Tower.

The facade is done in pink, green, and white Tuscan marble.

Brunelleschi's Dome with a shadow of the bell tower.

check the tiny people at the top.

Across from the Duomo is the baptistry, which had some pretty beautiful bronze doors with some artistic importance. The reliefs represent huge strides in perspective to create the illusion of distance on a flat surface.

The doors of the Baptistry

Continuing our walk, we used the pedestrian-only Via Calzaiuoli. Its a wide street that goes down the heart of downtown Florence.

The Piazza della Republicca--our hotel was just on the other side of the arch--if you've seen "The Light in the Piazza," this is where Fabrizio's tie shop is located ;)

In the Piazza della Signoria. This is the piazza where Clara and Fabrizio meet (fictionally, of course). Isn't my husband exactly who you'd want to meet on a piazza in Italy?? :)

I don't think I could be much happier right now. Maybe if I had more gelato...

The Palazzo Vecchio--now a museum has a beautiful, free courtyard, and a copy of the David stands in front of it, where the real one originally did.

Benvenuto Cellini's bronze Perseus slaying Medusa. Grody.

We walked through the Uffizi's courtyard (more on that in an upcoming post) to get to the northern edge of the Arno River, and my favorite place in Florence, the Ponte Vecchio. Its Florence's most famous bridge that originally held butcher shops (easy access to the river as a disposal system), but now it is lined with gold and silver shops. Its incredibly romantic, with beautiful views. This is also the only bridge on the Arno that the Nazis didn't destroy in WWII. The commander was instructed to, but he felt that such an important piece of history shouldn't be destroyed, so they just guarded it heavily. I'm glad :)