Florence-Firenze

Well today it was almost like we had never left Portland.... Aside from all of the amazingly beautiful architecture and art we saw today. However I'm sad to say that today we were forced to put on our rain jackets and bring out umbrellas because it started raining just like we were back in Oregon. Luckily today we started off early and missed most of the rain. We had the opportunity to start our tour on the oldest bring in Florence that has been able to withstand floods and WWII. After a history lesson on Florence we made our way to one of the most famous squares there that houses many well known statues that were created to symbolized Florence as a city state. There was the statue of Judith (a woman who had used her head to triumph over a man and save her city), to her is the famous statue of David (of the story David and Goliath) this one however is the replica the other is housed in Galleria dell Accademia. Although there were many statues the last one that was created to symbolize Florence was the statue of Prometheus killing Medusa. Once we left the square we headed to look at the incredible architecture of the Duomo. The Duomo is a church that took over 100 years and a number of architects to build. Following the Duomo we took a short break and were off to Galleria dell Accademia to see the original David. The Galleria dell Accademia is more well known for housing statues than paintings. Most of the famous paintings in Florence are located at the Galleria deli Uffizi, but there in Accademia was the original David (of course he has been restored quite a few times and most recently in 2004 on his 500 year anniversary). Also in Accademia are four of Michelangelo's "slaves" as they were called. These were 16 statues that had originally be created for the pope before the died. The 16 statues are spread across Europe but the four that are in Accademia all appeared to be unfinished. Our tour guide told us what some historians believe had been Michelangelo's idea behind them. He had wanted them to be able to transcend time, so left them unfinished so every generation would be able to interpret the statues differently. This is where our tour ended for us. We wondered around Accademia a little longer looking at some Contemporary art that was currently there (including a Pink version of David with blonde hair and blue eyes) and then headed out to shop and look around Florence. It was then as our day was winding down that the rain started to fall. We rushed back to our hotel and here we are now preparing for our 12 hour tour of Tuscany tomorrow!