There was so much to do here. Since it's a walking city, we walked A LOT. So much so that I had a swollen knee by the next day, but it didn't slow me down much because I wanted to see all we could.
Our first full day there, we went to the Uffizi and saw countless paintings of 'Madonna and Child', Botecilli's "Birth of Venice" and a few Leonardi Di Vinci paintings. We managed to get through that building in just 2 hours to make it to our appointment at the Accademia to see "The David." It is truly magnificent. A lot taller than we had expected... 13 feet tall but it's standing on a 6-ish foot stand. We looked at it for a long time from several angles.
Wait, there's much more... after lunch at an outdoor cafe we headed to the huge Duomo in the center of the city and were admitted up to the roof for FREE due to some festival that day. Whoohoo! That was a nerve-racking but cool experience. It's very high and at times you only have a 2-foot wide walkway. We saw the famous bronze doors aka "Gates of Paradise" on the baptistry. Next, we saw two palaces that housed the Medicis... the Palazzo Vecchio and Palazzo Pitti. We didn't like Pitti that much. They rip you off by making you choose an expensive ticket to the palace or palaces' gardens. We chose the gardens which is more like Central Park in its vastness. Too much after a long day! We ended the day on a fantastic note. Watched the sunset and ate a dinner of salami, cheese and bread at the park with the best view in the city... the Piazzale Michelangelo. It had a great view of the three bridges across the river (pictured here). Ponte Vecchio was an interesting bridge. It has shops built into it. It was the only Florentine bridge not destroyed in WWII by Hitler's orders. It is centuries old.
I've posted several photos on Shutterfly. I'll send everyone an email with the link.
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