The David & Section MEA

September 16, 2012
Florence, Italy

We successfully got up early today. I bet many of you never thought you’d hear (read) me saying this... but that made me VERY happy! On our way down to the “Accedemia”, the home of Michelangelo’s original David, we stopped in the Baptista across from the Duomo. Our ticket to the crypt yesterday included free admittance to this, and there was no line, so we decided to stop in. I’m glad we did. Like so many other places in Italy was beautiful.



Upon arrival at the Academy we had to wait 10 minutes or so for entry, which wasn’t bad at all. We again used a Rick Steves’ audio guide but we didn’t start it until we had investigated the David on our own. WOW is about all I can say. Bailey told me before I left that most art is sort of like “yah, that’s neat... but it doesn’t move you. The David is something else entirely.” She was right. It’s so large and lifelike it blows your mind.

Created between 1501 and 1504, standing 17 feet tall, and chiseled from gleaming white marble, you feel as though you can see blood pumping through the veins in David’s hands. Again, photos aren’t allowed in the Gallery, so click here if you want to see or read more about David.

The Museum of the Opera of the Duomo was our next stop. We gave it a quick pass through as I thought it would be interesting to see Michelangelo's Pietà, the tomb he created for himself. The Pietà is traditionally a depiction in art of the Virgin Mary grieving over her dead son, Jesus, and this one, known as the Florentine Pietà or Deposition includes the figure of Nicodemus, said to be a self portrait of the artist. Something I learned after the fact was that the museum building housed the studio where Michelangelo created the David.



Next we were off to a store I had seen the previous night that was closed but had some Christmas ornaments I wanted to buy. I was hoping they would be open and they were. The guy working in the shop was awesome. He was a middle aged Italian man who spoke broken English. I purchased some great ornaments for my future tree but the highlight of this store stop was when the gentleman started correctly singing to Flo Rida’s “Whistle” when it started playing on his radio. I laughed so hard I made Ben snap a picture of the guy for the blog when we were leaving.



We were doing very well staying on schedule this morning, so we decided to go to the Pitti Palace before getting lunch and going to soccer. The palace was originally the residence of Luca Pitti a Florentine banker, which is how it got its name. We didn’t have a lot of time so we quickly explored a few sections mainly concentrating on the costume gallery and a bit of the outside grounds.




The grotto at the Pitti Palace. 


A close up shot of one of the interior walls of the grotto. 

Shockingly we had pizza for lunch. Big surprise, I know. It may have been my favorite pizza thus far. We then hailed a cab and made our way to the soccer stadium for the AC Fiorentina vs Catania FC “football” game. The game was all I was hoping it would be and more. It was solid soccer, a wild passionate crowd and a few random Italian novelties. These novelties included porta potties with conveyor belts and smoking in the super cramped seats. Below is a picture from the porta potta and a photo essay I am calling The Fans of Section MEA. For those keeping score at home ACF won the game two to zero.


The conveyor belt porta-potty. 



























We walked back from the stadium. On our walk I stopped to take a hoop shot. It doesn’t have the the Duomo but it definitely looks uniquely Italian, so I feel it nicely captured Florence. Our stroll then took us back up to Michelangelo’s Plazza where we stopped for some gelato before continuing further up the hill to Santa Maria Miniato to watch the sunset. We watched a good part of it from the bench below. In Ben’s opinion he was “pretty sure this is as romantic as Hell.” I found that to be a hilarious statement. I’m not sure that’s the reaction he was going for but it's the reaction he got.


"Romantic as Hell" - Ben G. 





Once the sun was down we decided to go in the church because it was still open. Inside we enjoyed the decor and spent a few minutes watching a very unhappy baby getting baptized. Outside we snapped a few more scenic pictures. We then took a lengthy stroll back down the hill for dinner and to the hotel. It was long but great day. I’m tired and the alarm is going off early tomorrow for the beginning of our road trip portion of this adventure.







Until tomorrow,
Katy