Day 9...Firenze

They say Firenze.  We say Florence.  Same beautiful place!  

 

We spent the day in Florence today. It was so nice to be able to wander around the city center and see things at our leisure.  We started the day with a guided tour by a local guide.  We started at the Basilica of Saint Mary of the Flower - that would be the Fleur de Lis!  This is the church which holds the famous Duomo!  It is unbelievable how ornate it is just on the outside!  We cannot even comprehend how people in the 1400s did such things (and at such great heights)!  Our guide said it is the biggest church ever built and was completed in 1466.

Just a few steps from the cathedral are the "Gates of Paradise"which open into the baptistry.  These are bronze doors with a gold overlay.  They tell the story of the Bible in 3D pictures.  Our guide also said this was the first time 3D was ever used!  He called the Gates of Paradise "the poor man's Bible" because it was the story for those who could not afford an actual book of the Bible.  

Did you know that Pinocchio was written by an Italian journalist?  If your family comes home with a Pinocchio...that is the reason!  

Fontana del Porcellino, the famous Bronze Boar, was on our tour, as well. He is the symbol of Tuscany.  Tourists rub his nose to guarantee they will return to Florence one day.  So, everyone took a turn rubbing his nose and dropping a coin in the fountain for charity.

Next, our guide took us to the famous bridge, the Ponte Vecchio.  This bridge is famous for its buildings along the sides.  In other words, as you walk across the bridge, there are buildings on either side of you with shops on the bottom floor and houses on the second.  It was the only bridge across the Arno River until 1218.  However, the current bridge was rebuilt after a flood in 1345.  

Our local guide left us at the best local gelato place in Florence.  He said it one the locals will go out of their way to get to! It was definitely good because we were tired and hot!  

We split up for free time for the entire afternoon.  We went off in 3-4 different groups. The girls went shopping.  The boys weren't interested in the shopping. They tried to climb the over 400 steps to the top of the Duomo, but they were disappointed to find out they needed a ticket and the tickets were sold out! They did go to the Galileo Museum and enjoy some food together!  It has been fun to watch this entire group together.  They have been so good and so much fun!

Then some of the adults (and one student) went to the Art Museum to see the real David statue by Michaelangelo.  We had all seen a replica earlier in the day, but we wanted to see the real thing!  There were many other Michaelangelo masterpieces in the museum, and several projects that were unfinished.  Above is an example of an unfinished piece.  It is a perfect representation of how he worked from ONE piece of marble to create his statues!

The David statue looked 5 times larger than the replica we had seen.  Although, we were told they are the same height.  We learned a little about the design and plan for the statue as we read about its history.

After a lot of free time and burning more money than some of you may care to know about, we were ready for dinner!  

It was a huge buffet-style spread.  Above, you can see Miriam, our tour guide, showing off our feast!

It was another fun day.  The kids were in their rooms by 9:00, and we are all ready to rest for another day tomorrow!

Tomorrow we are off to Rome with a stop in Assisi!!!

Florence and San Gimignano

We started our day with a nice breakfast overlooking the Tuscan countryside.  Then, we boarded the bus for Florence.

We took a walking tour of Florence...seeing many famous sites: the Duomo which included the Baptistry and Florence Cathedral, built during the Renaissance.  The Baptistry includes gilded doors designed by big time artists...including the
Gates of paradise by Gilberti.
The Florence Cathedral is the 4th largest in the world.  It can fit 30,000 people and is also used for civic events! The Dome is the largest ever built.

We learned a lot about Dante this morning, as well.  When Dante wrote "The Divine Comedy", it was the first time an important book had been written in the spoken language of Florence.  So, he is considered the father of the Italian language.

Next, we walked to the Ponto Veccio,built in 1345.  It is the oldest bridge in Florence and the only one spared in WW2.

We then walked over to the Piazza della signoria to see Michaelangelo's statue of David.  That was very exciting!

Just before lunch, we went to Leonardo's Leather and Gold and learned a little about genuine leather! We bought a few things and moved on to lunch.

Then we took another bus ride to San Gimignano, a very quaint town about 40 minutes from Florence, or Firenze (as the Italian's call it), which is over 800 years old.  It has been really interesting to see these older cities which still have parts of the old walls surrounding the city and the city gate!

We walked up and down the small cobblestone roads as we shopped, ate Gelato, and enjoyed the buildings.  Some of our group visited a very interesting museum...I'll let them tell you about it!

After a few hours, we loaded back up and drove back into Florence for dinner.  Dinner was great!  By the time we got back to our bus and were on our way back, we had taken 21,000 steps today!  It was a fun but exhausting day.  I expect everyone will sleep well tonight!

Tomorrow we are off to Rome!