When I left you yesterday, we had just finished up visiting Pisa and were headed over to our next location, Florence.
Once we arrived in Florence, our van driver dropped us off in front of the Galleria dell’ Accademia so we could get straight to sightseeing (Yes, unfortunately the street in front of the Accademia is lined with cheesy vendors selling cheap posters). Although Florence has two art galleries (Accademia and Uffizi) because of our time constraints we could only pick one. We decided on the Accademia because we were more interested in seeing the Statue of David then the Venus de Medici.
Our tour guide collected the 7 Euro entry fee for the Accademia and purchased our tickets. Inside, our guide took us through the art collection that led up to Michelangelo’s masterpiece David.
The Accademia has several other marble sculptures from Michelangelo, including a few uncompleted pieces. This allows you to see the progression of his work up to David.
At the end of the hallway stands the magnificent Statue of David. Unfortunately, you are not allowed to take any pictures of the Statue so I’ll have to explain using standard stock photos. And don’t try to sneak a picture. We saw a girl get reamed out by the staff for taking one.
Michelangelo was commissioned in 1501, when he was only twenty six years old, to carve David out of a single block of Carrara marble. After two years of work, the 17 foot statue was unveiled at the entrance of the Palazzo Vecchio.
Because the statue was originally to rest hundreds of feet above the crowd, Michelangelo enlarged the proportions of the hands and head so that they would be visible. Now that the statue sits on a 6 foot platform, the disproportionately of the hands and head is quite obvious. Some argue that the head and hands were artistic enlarged to emphasize the important parts of David’s story.
One of the most fascinating things that we learned is that David actually has a sling hanging from his left shoulder that reaches around his back all the way to his right hand. For some reason, in hearing the David versus Goliath story, Mr. A and I had never envisioned that David used this kind of sling. Also, most of the pictures of David capture the front of the statue, leaving you to imagine what his backside looks like. At least now we know :)
The statue was removed from the Palazzo in 1873 and placed inside the Accademia to protect it from the outside elements.
After we finished admiring David (it’s truly a site to behold—I can’t imagine how much talent it takes to craft something so perfectly from one piece of marble), our tour guide walked us a few blocks south to the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore.
As we approached the cathedral, the sun shone so brightly off of the cathedral’s white marble façade that the building looked a glow.
Once we got up close, we marveled at its green, pink and white marble. It’s one of the most ornately decorated churches I’ve ever seen.
I must have spent a good 30 minutes trying to capturing every single detail, only to realize there’s no way I ever could.
The dome atop the cathedral was the first octagonal dome to be built (1436) without temporary wooden support frames. Although the marble façade looks incredibly old, it wasn’t actually constructed until the late 1800s. Regardless, it’s one of the most fascinating buildings I’ve ever seen.
Directly across from the cathedral sits the Battistero di San Giovanni (Bapistery) built in the 11th century.
The Baptistery is most well-known for its three sets of bronze doors which depict important scenes from Biblical history.
The south set of doors contains images of John the Baptist.
The north set of doors portrays the story of Christ.
And the final set has scenes from the Old Testament. It’s also known as the Gates of Paradise.
The doors were built in the 13th and 14th century by two different bronze smiths.Above the doors are several statues depicting various Biblical scenes as well. The most well-known is the Baptism of Christ perched above the Gates of Paradise.
We then walked a few more blocks south to the Palazzo Vecchio (the original home of David).
Built in 1299 as Florence’s palace, this stone building now serves as a museum and holds the office of the Mayor of Florence.
Flanking the entrance of the palace are two statues.
One is a replica of David (this was his original resting place).
The other is the original Hercules and Cacus, constructed in the 1530s by Baccio Bandinelli. The statue was commissioned by the Medici family to demonstrate their return to power after being exiled from Florence in the early 1500s. The physical strength demonstrated in this statue is supposed to juxtapose the spiritual strength displayed in David.
Directly to the right of the Palazzo Vecchio sits the Loggia Di Lanzi built in the 1370s to hold public ceremonies.
Underneath its large arches, Loggia contains several statues of Greek mythical characters including Benvenuto Cellini’s Perseus (the greek mythical character that beheads Medusa—hence the extra head), Jupiter, Mercurius, Minerva and Danae.
The most infamous statue, however, is the Rape of the Sabine Women. The statue represents the era of Roman history in which Roman man abducted women from Sabine and forced them into marriage. Romantic, no?
After recovering from the horrific story, we walked a few blocks south toward the River Arno to admire the outside of the Uffizi Gallery.
I’m sure our tour guide gave us tons of interesting facts about the gallery but all I could stare at were the creepy mimes posed outside its entrance.
For a fee, you can pose with these characters fashioned after Uffizi’s most famous art. I, for one, was greatly opposed after watching one of these characters assault a patron with his wandering hands.
We continued down the block until we reached an overlook of the Ponte Vecchio or old bridge, constructed in 1345. This is the only bridge in Florence that survived World World II. It now holds many different merchant shops and is rumored to be quite smelly.
Once our tour guide was finished explaining the bridge’s history, she sent us out for an hour of free time to eat and explore.
Since we had been jonesing for pizza since stepping foot in Italy, we headed over to the closest pizza joint. Unbeknownst to us it ended up being the same shop where the Jersey Shore cast worked when they were in Florence (we didn’t realize this until that season of Jersey Shore aired…yes, I’m ashamed to admit I watch).
Of all the pizza we ate on our honeymoon, this was absolutely the most delicious. The pizza literally came out of the oven and onto your plate.
After devouring our pizzas, we searched out a gelato shop to finish our meal on a sweet note. I can't begin to explain how amazing real Italian gelato is. It’s got to be something like heaven.
With our tummies full, we headed back up to the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore to oog at its marble again. Luckily when we got up there, the line to explore the inside of the cathedral was relatively short so we decided to venture inside.
We walked around and explored the inside for awhile. It’s always hard to take pictures inside of these things because they are so dark. We also made sure to take time to sit and admire the surroundings. So many people get caught up in taking pictures that they miss the grandeur of it all.
About 1000 pictures later, we returned to the square outside the cathedral to meet up with our tour group. Thus began, the worst and best moments of Mr. A’s life.
We decided to give our feet a break after all the walking and plopped ourselves onto the steps of an adjacent building. I noted the dirty pigeons above us but didn’t think about it much further than that. Not two minutes later did we hear a plunk on Mr. A’s shirt. He’d been pooed on by a pigeon.
What was worse was that I didn’t have anything to wipe it off with, so I was using scraps of paper I had to my wristlet to scrap off the unabsorbed portions. Di. Gust. Ing.
Freshly unpooified, we met back up with the rest of our group. Then out of the corner of my eye, I saw a camera crew and a huge mob of people walking towards us. I immediately started to laugh. Mr. A, not understanding my giggles, asked me what was going on. Wouldn’t you know that at that very moment the cast of Jersey Shore walked past us.
As soon as I explained who it was, the mob past us and my husband jetted after them to get a picture. Here our tour group was ready to go and I had to explain that my husband ran off to get pictures of some D-List celebrities. Talk about mortifying. No one in our tour group was under 40 so they literally had no idea what I was talking about.
After a few minutes, Mr. A finally returned with his prized photo from our honeymoon. A shot of Vinny, Pauly, J-Woww and Ronny. I shutter to think this but I’m pretty sure it was my husband’s favorite moment of our honeymoon. Glad we traveled 1,000 of miles for that.
With his mood thoroughly lightened, we headed back to our tour van for the 1 hour van ride back to the ship. We were so exhausted that we spent the whole ride napping so I have no stories or pictures for the way back.
If your cruise is headed to Livorno, I highly suggest using Rome In Limo’s tours. Our guide was incredibly well versed in the history and she maximized our time and the places we were able to see. Without them, there’s no way that we would have been able to see both Pisa and Florence in the same day. It definitely was worth the extra money (as opposed to DIY) to be able to see both gorgeous sites.
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