Florence Day 2

Our second day in Florence we visited more museums.

We started at the Uffizi Gallery Museum.

We saw lots and lots and lots of statues and paintings. We got to see selected works by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Rembrandt, and Botticelli. I only took a few pictures of two statues that were interesting to me.  This first one, I just loved the look on his face and the pattern on his clothes.  He also was one of the few that was mostly dressed.  And the next statue was amazing because it was done from one piece of stone and it had such movement and such detail.  Amazing that stone can be carved to look so life-like!

We also had another great view of Ponte Vecchio.

Next we walked over to the Piazza della Signoria to walk through the Museo di Palazzo Vecchio.  

This museum has a replica of the David statue at the entrance.  The David statue used to be housed here until 1873 when it was moved to the Academia Gallery. 

We then got to climb near the top of the tower--we couldn't go all the way to the very top, but we were able to get good views of the city and of the duomo.  For some reason they had a rule that only children 8 and older could climb to the tower.  We were surprised because Glenn had been allowed to go to the top of the duomo, and that climb was much higher and much more difficult.  Maybe Glenn got through it somehow without being turned away.  I don't know.  But Cheryl didn't want to climb, so she and Glenn went out into the plaza while Paul and I climbed.

Paul liked these little openings in the floor.  They were once used to defend the fortress from invaders.  It used to be open all the way and guards could drop heavy rocks and things on attackers.

Since we saw the replica of the David statue, we figured it was time to see the real thing.  We walked down to the Galleria della Accademia.

And there we saw the real David by Michelangelo!

It is huge!  It was pretty amazing seeing it up close and in person!

They also had these unfinished statues.  I thought it was cool to see how sculptors work through the stone to create their work.  I just can't imagine how much patience and hard work it would take to create these amazing statues!!

They had a small gallery of some instruments.  Glenn really liked this area--he recognized violins and all kinds of horns.  He liked the hands-on display that showed the difference between a harpsichord and a piano.

We had gotten our fill of museums for the day, and after eating some food and of course some gelato, we made our way home.  We stopped for a picture in front of the duomo and tower.

And we stopped so Glenn could ride the Merry-go-Round.  He had been so good to be dragged through those museums, so we wanted to do something for him.  He sure enjoyed the ride!