Sightseeing and shopping day

We today was ‘David’s day and what an interesting day it was. We had booked tickets to see David in the morning. Our booking was 8:30am and we were asked to collect our tickets at 8:15am.

The Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze, or “Gallery of the Academy of Florence”, is an art museum in Florence, Italy. It is the home of Michelangelo’s sculpture David. It also has other sculptures by Michelangelo and a collection of Renaissance paintings.

• 

• 

• 

• 

There was a strike on so we were asked to come back at 9:50 to collect our tickets. So off we went for breakfast. Then after that we headed back to the Galleria dell’Accademia and collected our tickets, only to discover that all the people who had booked after us and at the same time and some from the next block of people, were all crowded into the street outsie the gallery. We had to then join the queue which was about 70metres long, down the street and around the corner. Looked bad but we actually moved in very quickly.

Next we spent some time with David and some of the other pieces in the gallery.

• 

• 

Our next a reacquaintance for me with the Duomo. And a few Kms on cobblestones and mingling with the crowds some more.

We walked through Piazza Signorina, and saw a carousel. The sun was shining and we walked past some amazing shops, Like Dolce &Gabbana, Zara, Apple. We had lunch in the piazza. One Minestone, and Spaghetti with bolgnaise sauce.

• 

• 

After lunch we finally found our way to the Ponte Vecchio. It was crawling with tourists and it was the end of a lot of walking on rough surfaces. Google maps was not very reliable that day either and we covered a lot more ground than we had hoped to.

It was not a long walkabout (3kms) in the scheme of things but it was a warm day and it was time to go home for a rest, so along came a taxi and we were pleased to take advantage.

The next stop is Cortona south east of Florence, where our next adventure will involve driving on the ‘wrong’ side of the road!