Day 18: Seeing the statue of David - Michelangel-WHOA!

The two previous days were a lazy day in Rome and a travel day. Afraid we'd get off our tourist game, we started early in order to get to our full-day tour of Florence. So much time and so little to do. Wait a minute. Strike that. Reverse it.

We started our day by meeting our guide at the Piazza della Signoria. The Piazza is the origin of the Florence republic and has been the political center of Florence since the 14th century. In 1504, Michelangelo's statue of David was moved half a mile from his workshop and placed in the Piazza in front of Palazzo Vecchio, the city's town hall. It took four days to move it! After almost 400 years, the statue was moved to the Accademia Gallery to protect it from damage. In 1910, 37 years after it was moved, a replica was put in its place. There were several other statues in the Piazza, and we enjoyed looking at all of them.

We looked all over for the huge red dot on the Piazza square but couldn't find it

This is not what it appears to be.....

Replica of the statue of David

After looking at the statues in the Piazza, we made our way to the Uffizi Gallery. We saw works by Botticelli, DaVinci, Michelangelo, and Raphel! Our tour guide has an art history degree and spent quite a bit of time educating us on the art.  It was very interesting. And after this museum, we've actually taken in more art than gelato on this trip, and that's not an easy feat. So, in addition to public transportation, pizza, and gelato experts, the Hummels are now art experts!

The Doni Tonda by Michelangelo. He was commissioned to do this piece by Agnoli Doni. According to our guide, Doni did not like the piece and told Michelangelo he didn't want it. Doni's wife, upon hearing this, said she still wanted the painting asked him to contact Michelangelo and ask for a discount. Michelangelo said that not only would he not give a discount, but that if they wanted the painting they would have to pay double. Which, apparently they did.

After the gallery, we took a walk to Il Porcellino, or the bronze boar. Similar to the fountain in Rome (where, if you throw one coin in, you'll return to Rome), if you rub the boar's nose (and drop in a coin for charity, as they also use this money for the needy) you'll return to Florence. Though, if you rub the boar's nose and don't use hand sanitizer, you might take some of Florence with you.

After the boar and hand sanitizer combo, we went to grab a quick bite for lunch. After lunch, our guide took us through a small market where we saw some (super expensive!) truffles. Sherri was off-the-hook excited until she learned it was the mushroom truffles and not the chocolate truffles. She lost all interest at that point, which was great, because....super expensive!  We then wandered through some of the neighborhoods and learned about how many areas are UNESCO protected areas and you cannot paint shutters certain colors, hang laundry out front, put your Eurocar up on blocks, etc...  So, UNESCO just might be one of the oldest HOAs ever.

Sherri and I love all the doors here. We have probably taken two dozen pictures of doors.

Now, that's my kind of door!

We made our way to the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, which is the third largest church in the world. First is St. Peter's in Rome (been there) and the second in St. Paul's in London (done that). This cathedral is where the famous Duomo (fancy, sophisticated-sounding, but one syllable more word for 'dome', according to Google Translate) is. We didn't get a chance to go up in the dome, but we wanted to. The statue of David was originally supposed to go up on the cathedral but the movers were like, "dude, that big naked guy is over 12,000 pounds....he's going to have to be put somewhere else." Plus, if you've seen the statue of David (spoiler alert: we got to see it!) - um....AMAZING! Definitely doesn't belong high up on a cathedral where you cannot see the phenomenal detail.

Dome. Or, "Duomo" arigato, Mr. Roboto.

Which is a solid segue into our next stop: the Accademia Gallery. There were some really cool unfinished pieces by Michelangelo at the beginning of the gallery, but we kindly asked our guide for the shortcut and went straight to the statue of David. It is truly one of the most beautiful, stunning, fantastic pieces of art any of us have ever seen in our lives. Michelangelo sculpted it when he was 26 out of a single flawed block of marble from the quarries in Carrara in Tuscany. He stands almost 17 feet tall! I don't remember what I was doing when I was 26, but I wasn't creating sculptures that would be appreciated for centuries. I think I made a cool Devil's Tower out of mashed potatoes once. Or maybe that was Richard Dreyfuss. Anyway....amazing. The pictures (like almost everything that we've seen) simply do not do it justice. I highly recommend putting this on your list of "things to see in your lifetime."  The sculpture is of David moments before he battles Goliath. You can almost see him living....breathing....thinking. David became the symbol of the Republic of Florence.

After admiring David for quite awhile, we went back to look at the unfinished works by our slacker Michelangelo. We then parted ways with our guide and went to some of the shops along the bridge. Each of the girls picked out something by which to remember our trip, and then we decided it was time for dinner. I found a highly-rated restaurant which was a bit out of the way, because believe it or not, the girls really wanted....pizza! We trekked to the off-the-beaten path and they greeted us with "Buonasera....table for five?" I enthusiastically replied, "¡Sí!" (I'm bilingual, but in the wrong country). He then informed us, "Oh, by the way, we are out of pizza!"  Isn't that like a Mexican restaurant running out of tacos or chips or something like that? Hey Italian-restaurant-guy-who-orders-the-supplies.....YOU HAD ONE JOB!  We were pretty dead set on pizza so I found another place pretty close by that had a big selection of pizza plus other food. So, what did we get? Burgers! Silly 'mericans!"  But, to get fully back into European immersion, we had gelato for dessert. We walked back to our apartment and got there just before 9pm. Another very full day, Another 17,920 steps! So much time and so little to do. Wait a minute. Strike that. Reverse it.