Spring Break Part 2: Florence

      After seeing the pope speak we hopped on a train and headed for Florence! Our hostel experience was a lot less sketchy this time and after we dropped off our bags we headed straight for the Galleria Dell’ Accademia to see the Statue of David by Michaelangelo. They're not open on Mondays so we had to see it either Sunday afternoon or Tuesday morning before we got on a train to Venice. Sunday seemed like a much better option. Once we got to Galleria Dell’Accademia  the statue was not hard to find. First off its gynormous, secondly they modeled the entire building so that all the focus is on David. The hallway leading up to the statue of David was one of my favorites. It consists of probably ten or twelve sculptures that Michaelangelo never finished. Because of this you could see various steps of progress in different works. It varied from almost done all the way to just starting. This hallway made me appreciate sculptures a lot more because you actually got to see what sculptors begin with and how one mistake and ruin the whole sculpture. 

      Once at the Statue of David, we admired it for about forty five minutes. It was just as people had said. It was one huge, elegant, detailed, tranquil sculpture. It was interesting to pick up on little things people's tour guides would be telling them about the statue. Things such as: the statue was carved from a block of marble that the church had cast aside and was in their courtyard, that the hands and head were deliberately disproportional, that their are hundred of computers on it that continually analyze the ground vibrations for earthquakes near and hundreds of miles off so that the crack in his back does not get any bigger, and lastly that this sculpture spent a good amount of time outside in the city square Piazza della Signoria,  before being brought inside.  Although we could have easily stayed their for a while we had to leave in order to get to the Uffizi. We wanted a decent amount of time to look at the works within. 

       The Uffizi, just like most anything in Italy doesn't allow you to take pictures. So I do not have anything that I can show y'all but if you google all this stuff you will get hundreds of pictures. The Uffizi was AMAZING. There are so many famous pieces of art in the museum by world renown artist from the renaissance.  We stayed their until it closed and then enjoyed yet another delicious meal in Italy. 

       From their we ventured into Piazza della Signoria  by accident. Although the real David is no longer their there is a fake one that has taken his place outside which is cast out of plaster. And to the right of him, in a little nook is where we hung out for the night.  Here's a picture of where we hung out for the majority of the night. 

Inside the nook there are sculptures of:

        

Benvenuto Cellini's statue Perseus With the Head of Medusa

Giambologna's The Rape of the Sabine Women

We sat their and listened to the guitarist that was playing classics such as Stairway to Heaven, as we looked at these wonderful pieces of art. 

       The next day we got up early to go see the Duomo which holds Brunelleschi's Dome. It was no St. Peters but it was still quite breath taking. 

Front

Side

The crew. "Snowball" or "Italian Mike" is the guy on the far right. 

       Given the choice of climbing the bell tower or the cupola of the Duomo, we opted for the cupola. The top of inside of the cupola looks like this: 

The inside of the church looks like: 

And the view from the top looks like this:

Overall worth the five hundred steps that you have to walk up to get here. Also I'm glad we climbed the Duomo because it allowed us a closer look of the ceiling (thus why the ceiling picture was good) and it turned out to be higher than the bell tower. 

       

       From the Duomo we all decided that we needed some leather goods from Florence; since their suppose to have some of the best leather in the world. Mike and I went for Italian shoes while Paul went for a leather jacket. 

       We then enjoyed yet another spectacular dinner and the world best gelato. We go it from a place called Grom. It is so good! A quick, funny story. Mike had said that he knew of a great place to get gelato, but being the sugar tooth that I am I decided to get gelato on the way to get gelato. At the first place I got gelato I got the flavor "frutas del bosque" or fruits of the forest. It was pretty good, it was like strawberry, blubbery, raspberry, and some other fruits all put together. However, the second gelato place was right around the corner so I didn't have time to finish it all. I probably had three bites left when I entered the store. The second I entered the store the guy behind the counter asked me what flavor I was eating. When I told him Frutas del bosque he made a weird face. He said, "I'm curious, where did he find strawberries in the dead of winter?" (our spring break went from the end of february to the beginning of march) He then scooped me some apple flavored gelato and said "try this, I only use fresh ingredients in my gelato. No fats, no frozen fruits." And indeed i could taste pieces of apple in the gelato. After realizing that I had insulted him I bought a gelato from him. The flavors were bacio, carmel, and pear. It was the best gelato I had ever had! 

       From their we went to Ponte Vecchio, which is a bride that has small shops on it. 

I had fun messing with the setting on my iPhone. 

That's all for Florence.