Firenze Secondo Giorno

On our second day in Florence, we headed for another main attraction - Michelangelo's David.

We bought tickets online and I recommend doing that for any tourist attraction when you can. You pay a slightly higher price, but you avoid the long lines and at peak times, it can take several hours of standing in line just to get in. Most people don't have that kind of time to see just one thing. It allows you to go to a separate line so you don't feel like an ass in front of all those people who've been standing there through their last 2 meals.

The statue of David is in the Galleria dell Accademia in Florence. Although there are many other beautiful pieces of art here, this one is absolutely magnificent. It just takes your breath away as you enter the hall. This thing is huge! Photos are not allowed - so I took only one or two.

It's so hard to show what an amazing Carrara marble sculpture this is. He stands 14 feet tall. That's me stacked nearly 3 high. I'm not a big fan of spending hours in a museum, but I wouldn't have missed this.

Michelangelo (born Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni) carved the statue of the Biblical hero David between 1501 and 1504, begun when he was only 26 years old. Unlike many other carvings and casts of David, Michelangelo's appears to depict him before the battle with Goliath.

Michelangelo was considered the greatest artist in his lifetime and has become one of the greatest artists of all time. In addition to David, his more famous works include frescoes in the Sistine Chapel and the Pieta' sculpture.

In the same museum, is the Conservatory of Music with a beautiful collection of instruments.

I don't know a lot about instruments, but you can see that this violin (which looked like a cello to me) is a Stradivari. I do know who that is. There was also another really beautiful violin (the size I'm familiar with), but I got reprimanded for taking the photo above so I couldn't get a photo of the other one :(

Antonio Stradavari (1644-1737) was an Italian luthier - a crafter of stringed instruments. He made an estimated 1,000 stringed instruments and it is believed around 650 of these have survived. In June of this year a Stradivari violin was bought by an anonymous bidder for a record $15,932,115 with all proceeds going to help the victims of the Japan earthquake.

This is the Medici Chapel. We walked in and found out quickly there would be no photos and it cost €15 each to get in, which seemed like a lot, so we moved on. Other than having heard the word Medici, I really didn't know anything at all about this family. Turns out they were quite important.

This banking and political family became prominent in the 14th century gaining power first in Florence and then throughout Europe. They were also the first family to gain power, not through war, marriage or inheritance, but through commerce. They are credited with developing the double-entry accounting system to track debits and credits.

Their legacy also lives on in art since they financially supported such artists and scientists as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Galileo. Four Popes were also of the Medici family. We downloaded a 4-part series on PBS about the Medici family and I am anxious to watch it now that I know a little more about them.

Next, we decided to venture out of the city center and attempt to get a view of the city from the hills surrounding it.

We walked down to the Fiume (River) Arno.

"Hanging" from this bridge are little stores.

Just across the river, we started our ascent when we spotted this winding street that appeared to have a steep incline.

We walked and walked past house after house.

There were olive trees all along the way and they were loaded with fruit. They're evergreen and they remind me of small live oaks. It takes about five years for a tree to produce fruit and the average life of a tree is about 500 years.

Although not as famous as the south of Spain, the Tuscany region is known for olive trees and olive oil. All olives are green and if left on the tree will eventually turn black. If you've never tried an olive straight from the tree, don't - they taste awful.

The road that we thought would lead us to a lookout point just kept winding and ascending, but there were houses and fences with absolutely no view. This little road is for cars and those little narrow "sidewalks" are for the pedestrians. We contemplated turning back a number of times, but we trudged on.

Finally, we got to this . . .

a main street that led back down to the city and it definitely had some great views.

We were worn out, but glad we did it. After we got back to the hotel and did some calculatin', we'd walked 10 miles! Or as they say in Florence - 16 km.