Firenze Frenzy

Today we explored the Renaissance City, Firenze or Florence in English. Our day started bright and early…this time we actually set 3 alarms to make sure but none the less, by 8:00 a.m. we were out on the streets. Our hotel is near a lot of luxury stores including Burberry, Tiffany and Co., Gucci, and Prada. After a few minutes of window shopping we made our way to our first destination, Galleria Uffizi (Uffizi Gallery). Here we came across the evolving style of medieval to renaissance style art. The BIGGEST works at the Gallery was the Birth of Venus and Primavera. Unfortunately NO PHOTOS were allowed in the museum, this was the general trend of many of our destinations but we do have some photos of today.

Leaving the Uffizi we went toward the Arno River and visited the Science Museum. All the early explorations of astronomy, biology, chemistry, and engineering was housed here. We saw early globes, maps, compasses’ and even some of Galileo’s experiments of motions. Toward the end of the room of Galileo was also his FINGER! It was pretty much a skeletal bone but it was just weird to see on displayed. Joe was about to take a picture of it when a museum worker informed us that taking pictures weren’t allowed in the room. It was still a very interesting museum to see.

After leaving the Science Museum we made our way to the Bargello. It was originally the police house but was eventually converted into a museum with numerous statues, decorative china and paintings. Some of the highlights included the Statue of Jason, John the Baptist, and Donatello’s first and most famous Statue of David. BUT don’t confuse this David with the Michelangelo’s David, located in the Accademia. Once we finished the Bargello we grabbed lunch at this busy restaurant called the Yellow Bar. It had retro advertisements from the 20s and 30s and the atmosphere was very fun.

After wrapping up lunch, it was time to conquer the DUOMO! A gothic looking cathedral decorated with pink, green and white marble. Its huge dome is what made it famous. We took to the challenge to climb the 463 STEPS to the top. It was a cramped space not built for anyone over 6’ 4”. Joe struggled to not hit his head on the overhead stairs. Luckily there were some flat points in the climb and the one that was the most beneficial was when we walked the outlining of the outside of the dome. The pictures will show you the details of how descriptive they were about heaven and hell. Some the images are pretty intense.

Once we made it to the top the view was unforgettable. We could see all the places we visited, our hotel and the shopping area we were going to explore.

The San Lorenzo Marketplace was like the ultimate swap meet. Leather goods, cashmere scarves, silk ties, Venetian Carnival masks, decorative plates, wine, cheese, you name it. The way it worked was they would advertise on the street and take you back into their stores to look at the rest of the collection. It was pretty crazy to take on and a lot of haggling going on. The prices could be beat. It was overwhelming but worth it.

After doing some browsing, we made our way over to the Accademia. Here we got to the see Michelangelo’s famous David statue. It was 14 Feet Tall amazing. But just like you assumed, NO PICTURES. They were literally deleting photos off of other people’s cameras. It was a really cool to see in person. Along with the statue, we saw some unfinished scriptures by Michelangelo called the prisoners. It gave us a chance to understand how they made these amazing statues out of solid rectangular prisms of marble.

We headed back to the hotel to get ready for our last night here. Joe wanted to try a more family style restaurant and the hotel helped us pick one out. “Zio GiGi” or Uncle Joe Joe in English. They had a wide selection of wine and made this Tuscan special dish: Bistecca (a 500g about .5lb T-Bone steak seared on the outside and rare in the middle). The chef actually cut the steak a little larger and made it a 600g steak. It was huge! The food was great and we stopped in a little caffé called Gilli. It had a food bar, chocolates, hard candies, dessert, etc. It was open back when the Medici Family was still in Power (1733). We pick up these rose shaped candy that taste like the smell of roses. It was crazy. It was an tiring day but we got to see so much!