Florence, Day 1

We hit the executive lounge for croissants and coffee this morning and then took the hotel shuttle downtown to meet our guide.  As per our usual MO, we wandered around in circles for a while before we found him.  He was easy to pick out as he was leaning expectantly against the fountain, and when we walked up, he stood up and said, "Martha?"  We got that little problem sorted out and were off for our day.

First stop, Accademia to see David.  Let's be honest here, this is the reason I came to Florence and nothing else on the agenda really matters in comparison.  This is the scuplture we've all seen a million times in books, movies, posters, and replicas, so I thought I knew what to expect.  I didn't.  Here's a pic, but this is another thing, like the Last Supper, that cannot be explained, but must simply be experienced.

Here are some things I didn't know... the marble block that Michelangelo used had been started by another sculptor and abandoned because it was flawed.  It had then been rejected by several others as unacceptable.  But it was the only block available to him, so he decided to work on it.

I have always thought he was holding the rock in his right hand, but no, that's the end of the sling and the rock is in his left hand.  Charles (our guide) actually had a video on his iPad that he showed us of modern day reenactors.  This is one of the times that I can't say enough about the value of having a guide.  Charles is a retired criminal defense attorney from New York who came to Florence to write a novel, but gave up on the novel and stayed anyway.  He was the perfect guide for us and he added so much to our understanding of what we were seeing.

We had an amusing conversation about pubic hair where Charles explained that the reason David looks so well manscaped is that Michelangelo was copying the Classical style he'd seen while he was apprenticing.  However, here's the cool thing we learned... the reason the Classical statues have stylized pubic hair is THAT WAS THE ROMAN STYLE.  And we know this because of recent archaelogical findings from Pompeii.  How cool is that??

We saw Michelangelo's "Slaves" on they way out, which are "non finito" sculptures originally intended for the tomb of a pope.  They say "non finito" instead of unfinished because Michelangelo may have deliberately left the figures rough to symbolize the way the soul is trapped in the earthly body.

They also have yet another Michelangelo pieta (which, I feel compelled to point out to you, since Charles corrected my pronunciation for me) is pee-AY-TA, not pee-ET-a.

After the Accademia, we walked over to the Palazzo Vecchio and admired the architecture there.

Lyle saw some street musicians playing a song that was one of his Dad's.

We made our way to the Baptistry of St. John, admired the doors, and heard the story about the rivalry between Ghiberti and Brunelleschi, with Brunelleschi leaving Florence to go study architecture and returning years later to complete the work on the duomo dome.

Then we went in the duomo, which is significantly less ornate than some of the other churches we've toured, but has some of the most interesting history, notably the murder of Giuliano Medici during the Pazzi conspiracy.  This is the interior of the dome and not an example of how the duomo is less ornate than others.

We got sandwiches with Charles at a place he recommended, and I had ham and cheese, but here that means fresh mozzarella and prosciutto.  It was great, and yes, I believe this is the first non-pasta, pizza, breakfast, or gelato meal that I've eaten here.

After a trip to Ponte Vecchio, and an explanation about how the walkway above it was built so the Medici family didn't have to mingle with the commoners, we headed over to the Uffizi gallery.

The Uffizi put me into art overload.  We saw not just the amazing works of Michelangelo and Leonardo, but works by the masters with whom they apprenticed.  It was just an amazing day, and Charles made it make sense.

When we said goodbye to him afterwards, it was with regret, wishing we could have had him with us for the rest of our stay here in Florence.  We assuaged our sorrows with gelato and then found our way back to the shuttle bus stop and the hotel in time for happy hour.

Lyle's Jack Daniels shirt immediately marked him as an American, and he made friends with the whole room, including a long conversation with a couple from Ft. Worth who might be as car crazy as he is.

We're back in the room now, fighting with the internet and trying to figure out tomorrow.

Marty and Lyle