Exploring Florence and Pisa

Today, I had pre-purchased a ticket to see Michelangelo’s David at the Galleria dell'Accademia. I jumped on a bus to get from the hotel to the main part of the city. The nice part about pre-purchasing tickets was that I could skip the lines and easily get in to see the works of art. David is a masterpiece. It was sculpted between 1501 and 1504. My Michelangelo fan tour continues… he was such an amazing artist. I sat for a while and just stared at it. In 1873, the statue was moved from the Palazoo Vecchio and into the Galleria. There is a replica in the original location. After I spent enough time with David, I toured the rest of the Galleria. 

Next stop was Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Flower (Il Duomo di Firenze)! As I mentioned yesterday, what a place - interesting on the outside but a bit bland on the inside. The cathedral was free except for waiting in the long long line, but I had purchased a ticket to go up in the dome for the next day. This allowed me admission into the Crypt. I toured the Crypt which showed different versions of the modifications to the church and talked about the history of the cathedral. 

Then, I wrapped up there and headed towards my Pisa tour meet up. I figured I hadn’t had enough of pizza so guess what lunch was… okay now I might need to consult an addiction specialist. After lunch, I was starting to freak out because time was running out and the instructions on how to find the Pisa tour bus stop were not very good. Finally, I found the tour stop and we boarded a bus. I sat next to a woman (similar to my age) that was on sabbatical from work and spending 3 or 4 weeks traveling around Europe. She had already done a Mediterranean tour and had hit a few places in Italy. She was heading to France after Italy. The temps continued to be high and it was a warm bus ride. The tour guide provided the tour in two different languages – English and Italian.

Once we got to Pisa, we had to walk to Piazza dei Mirocoli, the main tourist area. In this space, we received a tour of the piazza, which had the Duomo Pisa (Pisa Cathedral), Pisa Baptistery, and the Leaning Tower (which is a glorified bell tower!). I made friends with a mother and daughter on the tour – Bennette and Danielle. We took turn taking the required Leaning Tower of Pisa pictures and then went to enjoy some gelato and fries (they were my new best friends!). They were on a vacation from Hawaii and had actually just made this a day trip from Bologna. The bus ride back wasn’t as smooth as the way to Pisa. There was an accident and we had to wait in some slow traffic, but once we got back on the interstate it was smooth driving again! Bennette and Danielle had missed their train back to Bologna but they were hoping to see about getting on the next one out.   

After arriving back to Florence, I walked around Florence some more. There was so much to see! I went to see the Ponte Vecchio and the gorgeous sunset. I finished up the day with 20,000 steps! WOW :) Headed back to the hotel so I could pack up and explore Florence one more day before heading on to Venice tomorrow.