Day 66: Florence

I woke up early this morning, around 7:00am, to go to the Accademia Gallery to see Michelangelo’s David. I was happy I took my guidebook’s advice and made a reservation because when I arrived at the Accademia fifteen minutes before my 8:15am reservation, there was a line of people (who didn’t make reservations) about seventy-five people deep. It probably wouldn’t have taken too long to go through the line, but it was pretty nice to be the first one in the museum before the tour groups arrived.

At 2.5 times life size, David was pretty impressive. It was amazing the level of detail that went into the muscles and veins in the hand. I also saw some of his unfinished statues, Prisoners, St. Matthew, and a Pietà – the museum map/brochure said that Leonardo believed that the sculptor was a tool of God, responsible only for chipping away at the stone until the intended sculpture emerged.

After spending about 45 minutes in the small museum, I went back to my hotel to catch up on sleep (not used to waking up at 7:00am). In the afternoon, I went to the newly renovated Galileo Museum. It had exhibits on his work, including astronomy, mechanics, and optics. The most interesting artifacts were some of his telescopes and his thumb and middle finger from his right hand displayed in a case. And like every other museum I’ve been to in Florence, photography wasn’t allowed.

I got dinner at the same family style buffet I ate at earlier in the week, and then went to my hotel room. I haven’t taken many pictures in Florence, maybe thirty over three days. Part of this is due to no photography allowed in the museums, but mostly because Florence is very much a city. Hot temperatures along with crowded streets don’t make for very good photographs.

Tomorrow I am going to the Uffizi Gallery, and then planning the rest of my trip. I haven’t made train reservations to Naples/Sorrento yet, so I plan on doing that tomorrow.