And So Ends Florence

Boy that went by quickly. 2 full days in Florence and off for our final leg in Rome starting tomorrow.

We only had a single thing booked... the Academia to see Michaelangelo's David. It wasn't until 11 and the Academia was literally around the corner so we let everyone have a good sleep in this morning. Then it was off to the museum.

There is more than just the David in that museum. They have tonnes of panels on wood art that predates the Renaissance. Caden made up a game to see how many "Madonna with Child" labeled paintings were in there. He came up with 39. I tried counting the number of "The Annunciation" paintings there were but gave up when I hit 20. (The Annunciation is when the angel appeared to Mary to tell her she will give birth to Christ. It always has the angel on the left kneeling down and Mary on the right usually looking shocked. It seems like every painter and their dog have a version. Maybe it is like a final exam at art school. You can't call yourself an artist until you have painted the Annunciation.)

Anywho... all that felt like we were just delaying the main event. So we all entered the corridor together to gaze upon the beauty that is David.

David takes your breath away. So beautifully done. And huge. We spent a good amount of time just admiring him from every angle (😉) and finally we moved on to the rest of the museum. They had a section dedicated to instruments and music, and of course more Madonna with Child and then we were done and back into the city.

We made out way over to the Piazzale De Michaelangelo. It is an elevated area that has amazing views of the city. If you have ever seen a picture of Florence that shows the Duomo far away, it was taken from there. We hung around the piazza for awhile, took some pictures and then wandered over to a couple of churches that were up on the hill. More pictures and then we were heading back down the hill to the city once more.

We stopped for lunch at a burger joint just for something different, and then the heat was just too much so we headed back to our apartment for a rest.

We rested a little, packed a little and then decided just to head back out for our final evening in Florence. We wandered around, got some candy, got some chocolate from Venchi, went and touched the Boar's nose to ensure we will be back, ate some Gelato, had some drinks, and walked around the Duomo until finally we were ready to call it a night and head back to our place. This one is tough to say goodbye to. Jen and I have already talked about coming back again one day. Hey... we rubbed the boar so it is only a matter of time right???

Tomorrow we are off for our final city of Rome. Tickets are booked and bags are packed. So we will take our time in the morning and be as relaxed as we can as we head to Rome. Because once we are there, it will seem pretty busy until we head home on Friday. So preserving energy is the name of the game until tomorrow afternoon. Whew. What a trip so far. Wish us luck.Read more