Florence Day Two

The David. After a delicious (and FREE, I might add) continental breakfast at the hotel, we traveled the wet streets of Florence to find The Accademia- home of The David. We had only seen a thousand naked statues since we had been in Italy so what could be so special about David? Well, it was spectacular! 

In 1501, when Michelangelo was only 26 years old, he was chosen to sculpt The David for the Duomo, Florence's cathedral. He first made his mark by sculpting the famous pieta in Rome...this convinced Florence's city fathers to trust him with the monumental project of sculpting David. He was given a block of marble that other sculptors had rejected as too tall and flawed to be of any value. But Michelangelo picked up his hammer and chisel and got right to work. In this carving, Michelangelo captures David as he is sizing up Goliath. He stands relaxed, but alert. In his right hand he holds the stone; over his left shoulder, he holds the sling. His gaze is steady and confident. He stands 14 feet high, and is sparkling white. Many complained that he was too big- his right hand is large and disproportioned to the rest of his body. This hand, however, represents the hand of a man who was powered by the strength of God. Of course we learned all of this from Rick Steves, but this statue really did come to life. I could have stared at him forever...and not just because he is a "chiseled" naked man!

After spending some quality time with David, we browsed the rest of Accademia. Many of Michelangelo's statues lined the halls- some not even completed. Chisel marks could still be seen in some of the projects. Michelangelo believed that the sculptor was a tool of God- not creating, but simply revealing the powerful and beautiful figures that God put into the marble. His job was just to chip away the excess.

Following the museum, we went on Rick's Renaissance walk (Florence is the home of the Renaissance). This tour took us around the city, somewhat like our night walk in Rome, but we were all feeling a little depressed by the rainy weather so it wasn't quite as exciting as we would have hoped. We were determined to learn something though, so we trudged on through the rain. This is the Duomo. It sits right in the city center of Florence.

This golden door is to the baptistry, an octagonal building facing the Duomo. The 3-D details were incredible.

The Palazzo Vecchio (Old palace). In the early 1400's, this is where the city council met. The original David used to stand outside this building. A riot broke out in 1527 and a bench was thrown out one of the building's windows breaking off David's left arm. It wasn't until 1873 that David was finally moved indoors for his own protection. A replica stands in its place today. 

We took a much-needed break for lunch. This gave Kylee a chance to change her plastic bags...the hole in her boot was causing her feet to get soaked! At the end of the day her toes were raisins, but the plastic bag technique had still worked wonders.

Conner coudn't resist the temptation to try one of these yummy, sugary waffles covered in nutella and whipped cream...It wasn't until after they handed him his personalized waffle that he found out it was 8 euros-over 10 dollars! For a waffle? Crazy. We all had a good laugh as he pretended it was worth it.

I guess the waffle was a little much.

We explored the city the rest of the afternoon and got some beautiful pictures, despite the continuous rain.

That night we were lucky to stumble upon an international market. There were rows and rows of tents set up in the town square. People from various countries in Europe were selling all sorts of different things such as grains, candy, jewelry, jackets, tea sets, nativities and more. We browsed the aisles and had tons of fun.

On the way home, Conner found what he had been looking for the entire trip-Italian dress shoes. He and Eddie had stopped in every store since we had arrived in Italy. Finally, Conner found the perfect pair and he could go home a happy man.

We arrived home by 8:30 that night. We were wet and tired but had a great day. We spent some time winding down with the television. We found MTV and Eddie sang every word to the top ten Jay-Z hits...little did he know he would be made bishop just a few weeks later. I'm sure his congregation would love an encore to his Jay-Z performance!