History Lessons

If Florence is nothing else it is all about history. In a city that dates back to Midieval Times, you don't take a step without crossing some great historical sights.

Our Guide, Romana

We began our day with a very robust breakfast at the hotel. There was everything that your heart, or your stomach, would ever want for breakfast.











We had previously arranged for a guide to give us a tour of the highlights of the city and give us an idea of what to see and what
to do (and as it turns out, she gave us a lot of advise on what NOT to do)        
So, Ramona was our guide. She is from the coast of Tuscany where she also own a bread and breakfast. Since she was educated in London and Orlando she spoke very good English which added to the enjoyment as we could really understand everything she was telling us.

Our first stop was the Cathedera di Santa Maria Del Fiore or
The Duoma, the largest church in Florence. (A little tidbit
here, Ramona tells us that the proper name for the city is
Firenze. Apparently no one can explain how it became
known as Florence.
The size of this church is simply overwhelming and the
facade is incredible, made entirely for white, green and red
marble from different parts of Italy. The Baptista in front of
the church is probably larger than most churches in Syracuse.
At 10 in the morning the crowds in the Piazza del Duomo in front of the church were huge. Today was liberation day, a
local holiday commemorating April 25, 1945 when the
German Army abandoned their occupation of the city.

Easily the most impressive stop of the day came when we visited the Galleria dell' Accademia and we're able to get in and see Michelangelo's David. I have seen pictures of this statue forever but to walk in the gallery and see this 17 foot tall work of art took my breath away. It is so beautiful and done in such great detail. Unfortunately, there are no cameras allowed in the museum so here is a picture of the scale replica that we saw in The Plaza Dell' Reppublica. Now, two things that Ramona told us about Michelangelo and David. First, he was only 25 when he did the sculpture and most incredibly, He had one of his slaves killed so he could dissect his body so as to get the anatomy correct!!!!

After our tour was done we had a very formal lunch on the streets of Florence. Romona had pointed out several small shops that offered sandwiches made from prosciutto and cheese. We were wary at first as we saw that they had them pre made and sitting on the counter. She assured us that was not a problem as they were so popular. Well, she was right. The lines in front of these shops at noon were amazing as
we're the sandwiches.





After lunch we decided to take advantage of being in Italy and took a little side trip. After an hour and a half train ride we arrived in Pisa and visited the leaning tower. Needless to say, it is quite impressive and was well worth the trip, including getting lost between the train station and the tower.

In many of the markets they have carts and kiosks with all sort of sweets, of course there are cannoli and this little treat, chocolate sandwiches!

One of our favorite spots is the Ponte Veccio or Veccio Bridge. This bridge, built by the Medicci Family in the 1300's. Originally it was where the butchers had all of their shops as the River Arno provided an easy place to discard of the waste. Most notably though is that it had a private passageway above the shops that allowed the Medicci family to travel from their house to their businesses on the other side of the river. Apparently it was to protect them from being attacked by their enemies. It is really impressive by night.

The bridge in day. Today the butcher shops have been replaced by gold and silver shops. It's quite amazing to walk across and see all of the gold glittering in the sun.