First Trip to Florence

We drove into Florence for the first time yesterday (Sunday). It's for the best that we did it on Sunday, because we made a few mistakes on the drive. We should be able to do it right the next time.

First, we walked through the Piazza della Repubblica. Lonely Planet basically says that it's a crappy square created in the 19th century by destroying part of the much more interesting old city. I suppose that's true. It certainly wasn't the most interesting thing we saw yesterday. Even the pictures I took were dull.

From there, we went to the Duomo. Of course, it being Sunday morning, mass was going on and the church wasn't open for tourists. We walked around the outside.





We haven't been up the bell tower yet, but we may do it when we come back.



We then went to the Baptistery, which is the oldest building in the square (and one of the oldest in Florence). The doors were added in the 15th century.





The dome is decorated with biblical scenes, including the last judgment.



From there we went to the Galleria dell'Accademia to wait in a really long line. (Apparently there's some art there. :-) ) After about an hour and 15 minutes, we got in. We saw Michelangelo's David, which completely lived up to the hype. We also went through the rest of the museum, including the collection of musical instruments going back to the 16th century. (There was even an ornate hammered dulcimer dating to the end of the 16th century.) It was very interesting, and led us to ponder such questions as "Does a harpsichord made of marble actually sound good?"

Sadly, they don't allow pictures inside the gallery, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

Every person reading this should now give thanks that discretion and sanity prevented me from buying this:



as a gift for anyone.

From there, we passed by the Duomo again and were able to go inside. I apologize if the pictures are a little on the dark side.







And, one last picture at the main door of the cathedral before we left.



We proceeded to the Piazza della Signoria, where you can see the Palazzo Vecchio (left) and the Uffizi Gallery. We didn't go in, because we're going to try to make reservations before our next trip into town. (And my feet were starting to hurt at this point.)



We walked by the Ponte Vecchio, where all the gold shops are located.



As our final stop, we went to the Ponte Santa Trinita.



We tried to take a picture of Debbie with the Primavera (spring) statue, but we weren't sure which one that was. The book says it's on the north side of the river, so there's a 50-50 chance we got that right. (Why do we care? Read The Miracle at Santa Anna.)