Day 4: Uffizi and Pitti

This morning started with breakfast in the room. Lots of bread again and coffee. After breakfast we headed out into the city. Our first stop was the Palazzo Vecchio (old palace). We didn't tour this palace but we wandered around the sculpture museum in the square and checked out the fountains. 

 Palazzo Vecchio

 Lion statue in the open air museum

Statue of Perseus cutting off Medusa's head

From here we walked around the corner and into the Uffizi Gallery. The Gallery starts with Medieval art and progresses through the Renaissance. It is huge but unfortunately not everything is open all the time. Highlights include works by Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Botticelli, Titian, Cimabue, and Raphael.

 The main hallway of the Uffizi is covered in paintings of citizens and sculptures. From there different rooms branching off hold art from different periods.

Medieval Artwork

The Birth of Venus

 You also get a fantastic view of the Arno River from the main hall

 The P

 The Ponte Vecchio from inside the Uffizi. This bridge is covered in shops selling gold and silver.The shops originally held butchers and othertradesmen until they were kicked out and replaced with gold and silversmiths

Nice views of the Arno from here

Me and my mom on the bridge.

From here we wandered through the streets on the other side of the Ponte Vecchio going in lots of shops and eventually we stopped for wine and paninni's at a cafe near the Pitti Palace. The palace was built in competition with the ruling Medici family however, the Pitti's ran out of money and had to stop construction. The Medeci family bought the palace, finished construction and moved in (they kept the name though).

 The exterior was built this way to hide the wealth within. It is the back of the palace with the gardens that looks pretty.

 Looking out over the main courtyard and the gardens

 The one and only picture I got in the palace (I was told to put the camera away). This is entering the Palantine apartments and series of rooms in Baroque style. After these rooms are the Royal Apartments where the Medici's lived mostly This is followed by the Modern Art wing (art post- Renaissance through the early 1900's). In the various areas you can see the change in  istyle and taste of the various occupants in the way they decorated the room.

 After leaving the Costume Gallery (halls showing Italian fashion through the years) we exited to the gardens and climbed a hill for this view of the city.

View of the palace from a hill in the Boboli gardens

 One of the tree lined paths in the gardens.

 The Boboli gardens are huge- there are 3 botanical gardens, 2 grottos and a bunch of other fountains, gates and other areas to see. This in near the pool.

 The Ampetheater

 Nice view of the palace and the city of Florence!

 The Medici Grotto

 Inside the grotto is a replica of Michaelangelo's unfinished The Prisoners which is now in the Accedemia. This is where it orignally stood.

 Fat man on a little turtle!

After the palace we picked up some pastries and walked over to the San Lorenzo market to shop. We at dinner at Da Giorgio where we had a multi plate meal which was delicious! I had tortellini rosa, steak and fries. My mom had spaghetti, pork in a truffle sauce and salad. The truffle sauce was amazing!

 After dinner we wandered over to the Ponte Vecchio where there was a man plating guitar and singing. We listened to him for a bit and enjoyed the view of the river.

The Arno River at night

Day 3: Firenze

Hello from Florence readers!

Today we woke up pretty early, ate breakfast and grabbed a train from Venice to Florence. From there we navigated the streets to find our hotel (which happens to overlook the Duomo).

After dropping off our bags we wandered over to the San Lorenzo market which is a street with tons of stalls selling all sorts of stuff like leather, t-shirts, jewelery, and inside all kinds of raw meats. We found lunch near here at a place called Mario. It was delicious! I had a boneless steak and roasted potatoes (a Floentine specialty) which were all very tasty. We ate with a woman from New Jersey who has been traveling around Italy for a few weeks. After lunch we spent some more time wandering the streets. We picked up a museum pass during our wandering and then headed to the Accademia.

The big thing to see at the Accademia is David. And I have to admit the statue was pretty awesome. The detail is amazing, especially when you compare it to other statues
From the same time period. You weren't supposed to take photos but while the guard was busy yelling at a man with a camera I snapped a few on my phone.

After the Accademia we headed to the Duomo where I climbed to the top. After 463 steps (the last 100 almost vertical) I was rewarded with a spectacular view of the entire city. Totally worth the climb and my sore legs!

It seems like there are stairs everywhere here (including 70 up to our hotel). The rest of the day was spent shopping and eating (pizza and pasta and gelato). We ended back at the Duomo which it all lit up at night, wandered around a bit more and headed in.

The Baptistry from our hotel window

The Duomo from the front.

Partway up there is a room with original sculptures from the exterior

Looking out a window on the climb

The interior of the dome. There is another level all the way around that is even higher up. From here the stairs are very narrow and twisty.

Looking down over the square

Great Views!

The Gates of Paradise

At night. The little white part on top of the dome is where I was earlier!

 



Day 2: Pigeons Galore

Today started off with breakfast consisting of rolls. You read that right, dinner rolls for breakfast. Not bad when you spread some nutella and jam on them. I also had these tiny toast things that were pretty good. After fueling up we headed off to St. Marks Square to accomplish one of my goals on this trip. Armed with leftover roll I was determined to feed and hold a pigeon.

It was actually pretty easy to attract them once they discovered you had food. When the first one landed it was kind of weird.

As soon as one came all its friends did too.

Lion statue next to the basilica

After feeding the birds we joined the crowd waiting to get into the basilica. The church has elements from 3 different times all meshed into one so it is very cool looking. It was built to house St. Mark's bones (he is the patron saint of Venice and his body was stolen from its original resting place) and the entire interior (and much of the exterior) is covered in moasics that all sparkle when sun or light hits them. The mosaics mostly display biblical scenes except for one that shows the town praying St. Mark's body is found (while building the church it was lost).

There are signs all over that say no photos but no one seemed to be enforcing this so I snuck photos anyway. This is standing up by the alter, you can see the Tree of Life in the top left.

The entire floor also has mosaics which is pretty cool

Next we climbed a set of steep stairs to the museum and this view over looking the rest of the basilica. The museum showed the various architectural elements on the exterior as well as some of the original pieces like the horses.

From here you can also go outside and get a great view of the square

There is also a great view of the water

Next we headed next door to Doge's Palace which housed the Doge and his wife as well as served as the meeting place for the city government. (No pictures allowed in here except on the outside)

Before the main entrance is the Mouth of Truth. People could use this to annonymously accuse their neighbors of things and make suggestions.

Entrance to the Palace is up the Golden Staircase which leads to the apartments and the government halls

After walking through the ornate palace covered in wood carved ceilings, fabric walls and paintings we crossed over the Bridge of Sighs and into the prison. (named because prisoners would look out, see the above view and sigh)

In the center of the prison was this courtyard (prison social hour??) surrounding it are prison cells in rows.

The next part of our afternoon was spent wandering the streets shopping. We ended up at the Realto Bridge which is lined with shops and so are the streets surrounding it.

The view of the canal from the top of the bridge

The funniest thing we saw while shopping was this hot priest calender

After shopping and lunch we took the Vaporetta over to another island to visit this church. San Giorgio Maggiorie. Riding to the top of the bell tower gives specacular views of the entire city.

The rest of the day we spent mostly wandering around. We went by the Arsenale, which is apparently still active and a military only zone and then went back to the hotel to drop stuff off. After a quick rest we headed out to find H&M and explore the city at night. We ate dinner beside the Realto bridge (seafood risotto) and ate gelato in St. Mark's Square.

In front of the naval museum

Military only

The Realto at night