Went to the Uffizi art gallery this morning. We probably didn’t appreciate this as much as we should have—we really weren’t aware of all we were seeing. After reflecting on this, we decided that we’d buy a guidebook for future art gallery visits. We had 11:30 reservations at the Accademia Gallery, where Michelangelo’s David lives, but we got there early and were allowed to go in early. Thank you Marion (our travel agent)—having reservations saved us SO much time!! Seeing David was one of my favorite parts—he’s so amazing! I had been reading a bio of Michelangelo during the trip, so that helped me appreciate it even more. To think he carved David from a piece of marble that was considered to be flawed.
After lunch we went to the Duomo (cathedral) then waited in line to climb the dome. It's the biggest dome in the world and ... no elevator! We climbed 462 steps to the top. If you look carefully in the photo below, you can see people standing behind a railing where the terra-cotta tiles meet the white pointy thing on top.
That's where we climbed, and it's where we were standing when we took this picture of the beautiful Tuscan landscape. Yes, the sky really was that blue.
Bell tower next to the Duomo. You can see the three varieties of brightly colored marble -- white from Carrara (Michelangelo's favorite kind), green from Prato, and red from Maremma.
Then, as if we weren’t tired enough, we walked to Santa Croce, a church where Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, and others are buried. We got back to the hotel around 4 and just crashed. On our walk back to the hotel, I had the best gelato of the trip—coffee flavored!!
No comments:
Post a Comment