We Saw the David. Enough Said.

Everyone pretty much goes to Florence to see Michelangelo’s David. Well we did too. We woke up early this morning to try and beat the crowds to the Galleria dell'Accademia. We had read that it was best to make reservations in advance because the lines can be insane, but there weren’t any reservations left when we tried to book them two months ago. So we prepared ourselves to brave the lines and wait for hours. There were three people in line. We still had to wait for a whole twenty minutes but that was way better than the hours we had planned for. We got our tickets and walked in, expecting to have to search through a maze of rooms to find the David. It was right around the first corner. That didn’t, however, lessen the awe in seeing the sculpture in person. It is massive. We were so amazed with the details. Michelangelo even included the veins in his hand. We could definitely see why Michelangelo was a master.

After making a quick turn through the rest of the Accademia to look at yet more altar pieces that all look the same we headed to the Duomo. There are 463 steps to the dome and no elevator. We decided that it was not worth the pain to our already sore feet so we just got in line to see the inside. It was pretty plain. Nothing compared to the impressive green, pink, and white façade. We looked up into the dome as much as we could since the part directly underneath it was blocked off and then decided to go have lunch.

Then we made our way to the Palace of Bargello, a Gothic building that now houses an art collection. This is where Donatello’s bronze David is held. We were most excited to see this piece. We looked at some of the sculptures downstairs and then found where the David is kept. What we found, however, was a sign telling us that the sculpture was on loan to Milan and had been moved the day that we were there. So that was kind of a bummer. We looked a little bit more at the sculptures, pottery, and various other objects that they had and then left in search of a gelato place that both of our guide books had recommended.

We found Vivoli and ordered our gelato. We are becoming quite the gelato critics while in Italy. Claire thought their tiramisu gelato was amazing and even went back for more. But I still thing Grom, the gelato place we went to last night, has had the best gelato so far. It tasted like they had melted actual dark chocolate into the dark chocolate gelato! But anyway, Vivoli was really good too.

We then walked to the Arno River and down to Ponte Vecchio, a medieval bridge that once housed butcher shops, but now has tons of jewelry shops along it. We walked over and back looking at all the jewelry and then decided to head back to our hostel because our feet were killing us and we were really tired. We had intended to go to the Basilica of San Lorenzo, but we were so tired that we decided to rest up since we will be heading to Rome tomorrow and will be doing tons of walking!