Florence

Today we woke up late because we were so tired from the day before, our long day in Venice. The plan was to get up and go see the Uffizi which holds many famous renaissance paintings. We were warned that the lines would be very long if we didn't go early. Well because we were tired and we were on vacation we decided to get a slow start and just enjoy ourselves.  On the way downtown we stopped to have 2 espressos and a croissant each.  I'm starting to love the espressos and will probably only drink those instead of regular coffee when I get home. We were making our way to piazza Vecchio and the Uffizi and walked though the street vendors. I found a perfect present for mom (but I'm not going to ruin the secret). After we went through the market some more we ran into piazza Vecchio  which contains the palace of the Medici. As we walked up we noticed they were setting up for something.  There were large inferno cardboard cut outs of Dan brown's new book. Justin and I both love his books and Justin is currently in the middle of the Inferno.  With all the publicity around it I got excited and looked at Justin and said no way is he here for a book signing?!?!? So we went to the ticket office and asked....yes he is indeed in the city promoting his book and participating in a festival that the Florence city library is putting on.  We found out that tickets were all sold out otherwise we would have stayed in Florence longer and then gone to Milan just to catch our flight.  I'm excited to read the book now that I have seen Florence because the book is set in Florence....a good church of it in the palace Vecchio where we went today which is cool to out an actual place with the book you are reading.

Dante's death mask

About that time Roxy called and said that she was done with her exam and got an A!!! She really is Wonder Woman.  After lunch she had to have a quick meeting with her professor about her Bachelor's thesis and the.

 We were off to explore the palace of the Medici.  The palace is amazing.  I think I'm getting overwhelmed with all the beautiful art and architecture because it is all starting to look the same.  So just a word of caution to all you world travelers...the brain can reach a limit to appreciate amazing culture.

For Adi.

 After the palace we headed up the Dome of Santa Maria del Fiore where we climbed 467 stairs (107 meters high).  the Dome is painted on the celling of the dome and is 4,000 square meters large.  it is the largest fresco painted on a circular surface with a christian theme. the paintings were amazing but then we saw the view.  Talk about breathtaking!!

Walking up the stairs.

All of us :) 

After we were done we took a break at the university and had a coffee with a view of the Dome.  Our last task of the day was to see the real David by Michelangelo.  There are many copies. There is even one in the piazza Vecchio, but we wants to see the real thing.  We went into the museum 30 minutes before it closed and rushed to see the David.  It really is a colossal piece of art.  He was 21 when he did it and just took a piece of marble that was left over from the dome in Florence and started chipping away and finished with this beautiful masterpiece.  It is from right before his battle with Goliath and Michelangelo out the sling around his back to show that David won because of his intelligence and not just brut strength.

A statue of Herculese. 

  After that we went to do an apperativ which is when you buy a drink and then have an appetizer bar for free.  It was very yummy and I got very full on their pasta, caprese, and meats.  The night was spent catching up on blogging and just resting with Roxy since we were all not ready to say goodbye.