Florence, Day 2

Friday, 6 July 2012

Replica of the David

Friday morning, I woke up a bit early because I knew that I wanted to see the David. The Galleria dell’Accademia has notoriously long lines – averaging about an hour to two hour wait – so I knew that I needed to get there in the morning. Fortunately, when I got there, I found out that I could go to a bookshop down the street and buy tickets there. For an extra €3, I was able to buy my ticket then and walk straight into the museum without standing in line – definitely worth it. I thought that maybe since I’d seen the full sized replica of the David the day before, the real thing wouldn’t be all that different, but I was wrong. The original is much more impressive than any replica ever could be. An adjective often attached to Michelangelo is ‘genius,’ which is absolutely accurate. His work is so meticulous that his statues look like really large, stone humans. He leaves nothing out. For example, on the David, you can see the veins rippling in David’s arms. The level of detail is absolutely astonishing. The picture I've included is the replica of the David that stands in the Piazza Della Signoria because I wasn't allowed to take pictures in the Accademia.

The Belltower

View of the Dome and Florence

After the David, I headed over to the Piazza del Duomo, which houses probably the most recognizable building in Florence, the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, better known as the Duomo. Its name comes from the massive dome that dominates the church. The Duomo is probably my favorite building in all of Florence – it is absolutely stunning. I had planned on going into the church, but when I got there around 9:45, fifteen minutes before the church even opened, the line was already wrapped around the building, and it stayed that way all day. So I just walked over to the bell-tower that is right next to the church. After a climb of 414 steps, I got a breathtaking view of Florence and a beautiful close up view of the dome next door.

Statue of Michelangelo

From the Duomo, I walked over to the Palazzo degli Uffizi to take some pictures. The Palazzo is lined by statues of great Florentine thinkers, such as Dante, Galileo, Machiavelli, and Michelangelo. That didn’t take too long, so I walked back over to the Duomo, grabbed some gelato, and hung out on the steps to wait for my friend, who chose to sleep a bit longer rather than see the David and climb the bell tower.

Once she made it to the Duomo, we headed over to Leonardo Leather to buy some leather goods. Luckily, it was the shop I was thinking of, so I was happy because I really wanted to go back there. I even got a discount because I meantioned that I had come to the shop two years ago with EF Tours. Also, we met another American there, who was from Minnesota. I heard him talking and asked him where he was from, and he said he was from the States. I thought maybe he was studying in Florence, but it turns out that about a year or two ago, he decided to just pick up and move to Florence without knowing any Italian besides ‘ciao.’ I admire him because as much as I love Florence, I don’t think I could leave America and its culture behind, especially without being able to speak the language.

With the Porcellino

Once we bought our leather goods, we headed over to the Mercato Nuovo (New Market), which is a big gazebo where leather merchants set up their wares. We were able to get some more leather for a god price there. But the market isn’t the only attraction there. Also in the market is the Porcellino, which translates to “little pig.” Ironically, the statue is not a little pig at all, but rather, it is a brass statue of wild boar. The legend of the statue is that if you put a coin in the boar’s mouth and it falls through the grate below, it means that you’ll return to Florence someday. So I rubbed the boar’s nose and put my coin in his mouth. The coin fell through, which is good for me, because I know that I want to go back to Florence again one day.

Living Room in Casa Guidi

By then, it was around 3:00, so we decided to take a little literary expedition and visit Casa Guidi, where Robert and Elizabeth Barret Browning lived. The Brownings were two English poets. Their story is that Robert wrote Elizabeth letters and eventually, they eloped. They left England amidst scandal and ended up in Florence after a honeymoon trip through France and northern Italy. I don’t know much about the Browning, but I’ve read some of their poems in classes, so it was really cool to see the house where they lived and the area that inspired a lot of their work.

After Casa Guidi, we decided to head back to Signa because we felt that we had seen a good portion of Florence. Plus, it was hot, our feet hurt, and we were exhausted. We just ate dinner around the corner from the hotel before turning in.