Michelangelo & Galilleo

Without having to worry about travelling and trains and flights, this felt like my first full day of sightseeing without having to be on a schedule. I had booked in for free tours on the Northern part of the Arno River, and as such, I started by day in the South where my accommodation was. There was still plenty to do, and I am glad I split it up this way as I managed to fit just about everything into today that I really wanted to see. My plan was to go see the views from the top of the hill, track back down to the river and then finish off by heading West and seeing everything in the South.

It started off with a bit of a long walk up the hillside, but the view at the top was worth it. The red brick rooves, colourful exteriors, and colossal monuments that protruded above the delicately detailed rooftops and colourful skyline (such as the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence and so forth), made for an unreal view. Once again, the photos don't do it justice, but it was truly incredible. Then, after some more aimless wandering, I ended up in a war memorial park that had a quite sombre feel about it, but it had some amazing views of the Italian countryside just to the South. Florence is actually a very small but compact and functional city. After completely circling the strange stone structure that the park encapsulated, I ended up at the entrance to the Basilica di San Miniato by complete accident. Unfortunately, the Basilica itself was undergoing works so that made getting a good photo much harder, but even just walking through the graveyards and into the church itself was an experience on its own. The inside was so incredibly well built and maintained that it was hard to believe that it could ever have been built during the 11th century. This is likely the first of many churches that I will get to view, but if they're all like this, I won't complain. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to be taking pictures in the cemetery part of the Basilica, so I held back sometimes but still managed to take some good ones. The size and extravagance of some of the burial sites were unbelievable - this wasn't something I planned to see, but I'm glad I stumbled upon it. After another smaller church and walking through the Piazzale Michelangelo, which provided equally extravagant views, it was time to head down the hill again toward the river. But, not after some quick admiration of the incredible statue that adorned the beautiful plaza and provided a incredible forefront for the view of the city. Though not the original, it was a fantastic replica of the famous statue of David, created by who else other than Michelangelo himself. The real thing, built and preserved in the city of Florence can only be seen in the Accademia Gallery of Florence, but more on that later.

On the way down, there were extraordinary waterfalls inbuilt into the architecture and the steady gradient of the hillside that flowed down alongside you as you went and it was just amazing to me for whatever reason. There were no rivers running down the hill, but these waterfalls just seemed to appear from out of nowhere and looked amazing. I can barely describe them, the water fed into this big pond at the bottom with fish all through it - definitely worth a look through the photos to best describe it. After this, I was by the river and began tracking to find some lunch, but first, I was tempted by the house of Galileo that was just up the road from where I was. It wasn't far, but it sure was steep. I had high expectations for the house, but when I got there, it was just a house! You couldn't walk through or even see anything exciting about. I almost missed it, if it wasn't for maps saying I was right out the front. It had a picture of Galileo, but other than that, you would have never guessed it was his house, I think people live in there still.

Next, I went to the famous Ponte alle Grazie bridge, where houses and stores are run on the bridge itself, often overlapping. This was so cool and incredibly busy, but that is expected in these types of areas. As they sell mostly jewellery, I saw little reason to stop, but it was still cool to look. I then tried to visit the Medici Garden, but it closed at 7, so I was left with not much to do with my afternoon. As a result, I found a calzone to eat for dinner and went back to my apartment for bed.Read more