Florence

A wonderful walking tour of Florence starting with the Statue of David and continuing to Piazza della Signoria, the Duomo, and ending up at the Ponte Vecchio

We met in a small piazza and headed to the Accademia Gallery. Another skip the line access ticket got us inside rather quickly and the tour of the artwork began. As we walked down a long hallway, you can see the Statue of David looming in the distance. Before we made it to David we saw unfinished works of Michelangelo and learned how he went to the quarry to pick out his own slabs of marble and cart them back.

When we arrived at David we were able to walk the whole way around it and admire the work up close. We learned about how his arms and hand were out of proportion with the rest of the statue.

After seeing other works of art we left the Accademia and headed towards the Piazza della Signoria. On the way we stopped to see Brunelleschi’s Dome and then continued on to The Baptistery of St. John where we viewed the large bronze doors of the Baptistery.

Once we came to the piazza, our guide showed us the ledge up on the Duomo where the Statue of David used to preside. Since we had skip the line access, we entered the Duomo for a wondrous tour after just a very short wait. While not as grand as St. Peter’s Basilica, it was still incredible to see. We didn’t climb the dome, but that would be something to do next time.

After leaving the Duomo our tour was unfortunately almost done. We head towards the Ponte Vecchio for our last stop. We passed shop after shop on way up to the middle of the bridge. We learned that it used to be butchers that occupied the shops instead of the jewelers, artwork, and souvenir sellers that are there today. We ended our tour at the bronze bust of Cellini, made in 1900 to celebrate the bridges fourth century.

If you only get to do one thing in Florence, this would be it. The tour was over by lunchtime so we headed to a pizzeria we saw and relaxed before heading to the Uffizi Galleria.