Florence Day 2

So today was our private walking tour through the city of Florence by a man named Roberto. Roberto was excellent and our tour took us all through the city, and to some very interesting lesser known "gems". Of course we walked by Il Duomo and the Bapistry near the beginning and we found out that the Baptistry has been around since about 600 A.D. - WAY before Il Duomo was ever even thought about. The doors are made of bronze and, although all but one have been taken down and preserved, one was still there. The detail in the carving is spectacular and we were told it took the sculptor over 27 years to do the first door, and 20 years to do the second - the most famous, The Doors of Paradise. You can see these if you look closely at the bottom of the Baptistry.
As we wandered through the city we came across a guy who stands below where Dante was actually born and can recite the ENTIRE Divine Comedy. He was dressed in costume of the period and you could flip through the Divine Comedy (which he had there on a stand), point to a page, and he'd start acting it out and reciting it. And I thought opera was tough!!!

We were going to go through the Ufizzi and the Accademia in the morning but the temps today where in the low 90's so we walked first, and then John & I just walked through the museums as the day wore on. Of course, in the Ufizzi Museum there were paintings by very famous artists - Boticelli being one and hundreds of beautiful sculptures. It was a little overwhelming.
The Accademia was built with the idea of students going through and learning, and so it's a bit smaller but just as spectacular. They have a small section of instruments so of course I took John through and "oohed" and "aahed" over the Stradivarius - pointing out all the little differences in those and ours. I think he got a little bored!!! :>) The museum had Stradivarius' only viola which was exquisite! For Mom and those other people who love strings, the fingerboard and tailpiece were beautifully ornate and the bridge was very curvy and had it's own design. I couldn't take my eyes off it! Of course we weren't allowed to take pictures, so I just stood there trying to memorize everything I saw.

The David. Wow. That's about all I can say. For some reason I expected it to be smaller because so many times you hear about a painting or something being so magnificent and then when you see it it's way smaller or less wonderful than you imagined. Not so here. The detail in the sculpture is beyond description. Of course I took 2 pictures and got yelled at but I just had to!! ;>)
Leaving for Venice in the morning so more later....One last shot of us looking over the Ponte Vecchio bridge.