The last full day in Italy, and to be honest I am glad to be spending a whole day in one place after three days of traveling. Of course, being someone who had shown almost no interest in art throughout his life, and hasn't studied any history of this period of time, I knew nothing about this place. Well except that it is famous from the renaissance and the David is here.
To start my journey Tyler and I did a free walking tour. This taught me some history of the area such as the civil war in Florence and the reason for all the towers in the city. He explained the significance of the churches including the dome of the Duomo. The door on the basilica was explained, but still can't believe it took 23 years to make. And of course we saw the houses of three of the Ninja turtles. Only Donatello's place of residence when in Florence was not mentioned. We finished at the church where Michaelangelo and Gallileo are buried.
Due to the interest of the first tour, we went back for the 2 tour knowing it was a different route. Unfortunately there was a much bigger group this time so felt less personal. We did learn about the medici family, the significance of the David to the city, the old bridge that even survived the war when every other Bridge was destroyed. We finished at the palace with a story about the history of gelato, apparently being a Florence thing.
On this tour we meet Julia and Laura, a couple of German girls. They were friendly and wanted to join us for the walk to Michaelangelo piazza, the look out point for the city. We were happy for the additional company as we hadn't experienced too many travelers who wished to be social on our trip. (Except an Australian guy we decided to avoid as he only talked about beer pong).
The look out point was crowded as like the rest of Florence (was actually one of the busiest tourist cities I have been too) but still charming. We took daylight pictures, and then didn't have long until night pictures.
The evening finished with a humorous evening of dinner and drinks with our new friends.
Last day tomorrow, Pisa and home!
Short and sweet post.
Joshua
great!
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