Firenza - Part II

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We definitely had to return here as we missed seeing David in the Academia when we were on the tour. Luckily for us we stayed very close to where we stayed on the tour, so it didn’t take too long to get oriented. Our room was great and cheap, the man behind the counter let us upgrade for free which was nice, we don’t really like sharing bathrooms anyways! We hit the streets for dinner and it was sad walking them by ourselves, we didn’t have any friends to say g’day to, or go and have dinner with. Walking passed the Duomo reminded us of our friends, we hope everyone made it home or to their next destination okay! Mariangela recommended getting a Florentine steak so we went hunting for one! It wasn’t like an Eye Filet back home, but it was a good to finally get a decent steak for a change!

We visited the Academia the next morning and we weren’t disappointed with what we saw! The statue of David is unbelievable. I used to think what’s all the fuss with a statue of a naked dude, but after finding out on the tour that Michelangelo didn’t create a plaster model first, he found an old block of marble in the grounds of a cathedral somewhere, and carved it first time from scratch! A true master piece! It was also very interesting to see the prisoners he had started before he died. The unfinished work gave you a glimpse of how he sculpted David! After seeing this we decided to head for Santa Croce where Michelangelo’s Tomb and also Galileo’s tomb are. The entry fee was 5 euro but definitely worth it! The basilica is also very picturesque as you can see from the photos. There were nice gourmet food and wine markets outside so we enjoyed a relaxing lunch here with some good people watching! There were lots of stalls with little roast piglets. I couldn’t bring myself to eat it but had delicious risotto balls instead. Yum!

Last time in Firenze we had our group photo taken from Piazza Michelangelo which has a great view of the city. We decided to walk through the gardens up to the Piazza and take a few extra snaps for ourselves. It gave our legs a good warm up for the Cinque Terre walk!

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