Today we were in Florence and Pisa with Melissa and Ashley, Linda and John, and May and Gary. We got off the ship in Livorno, and it was about an hour and a half drive into Florence. Our guide, Violetta, was really great. We started off with a tour of the Accademia museum, which is where the original of Michaelangelo's David is. There are also lots of other sculptures by him in that museum. We pretty much got an art history lesson in there with the detailed explanations that Violetta gave us. It was really interesting to hear the stories behind all the artwork.
After that we took a walking tour of the city. We stopped at the Duomo, which is absolutely gorgeous. The baptistry and the bell tower are also very ornate, especially the gold doors on the baptistry and all the mosaics inside. So from the religious center of the city we went to the political center, the Piazza del Signoria. There are many, many sculptures in this piazza (including a replica of David where the original once stood) as well as the Old Palace of the Medici family, who were thrown out 3 times in between being the most powerful family in the city. We also saw several other Renaissance-era palaces, and the famous Ponte Vecchio bridge. After a wonderful lunch at a restaurant recommended by our guide, we did some shopping (including gelato!) before meeting our driver for the trip to Pisa.
We didn't get to spend too long in Pisa, just long enough to take pictures of the famous Leaning Tower and the Cathedral and baptistry. It would have been nice to have more time and climb the tower, but we had to get back to the ship.
After we got back to the ship, Zach had a massage and I sat out on the balcony enjoying the view and listening to the Bochelli they played over the ship's speakers as we sailed out. Tonight we had dinner with some of the people from our tour. The food is really great, so it's a good thing that we're doing so much walking during the day!
Tomorrow is Rome!
3 comments:
Sounds like you didn't get to go up to the top of the duomo... too bad, the view is amazing - both inside and outside... kinda scary, but fun (and a good workout). If anyone's curious about pronunciation, "Michaelangelo" is most properly pronounced more like "mick-el-angelo". Also, if you ever go back, you'll find that there are replica's of David all over Florence - with a name like david, how could you not make tons of copies!
I hope that doesn't qualify as taunting.
I would have loved to get inside the Duomo. I would totally go back to Florence. I think we saw 3 Davids, including the original.
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