Italy - day 5 (Florence)

Today we entered the mystical world of Florence, known for leather goods and its open markets. Can I just say...WOW! If you want souvenirs in Italy, Florence is the place to shop. Not only do they have better goods, they have better prices than Rome (even better than we found in Venice). The market goes on forever and then turns down a road and keeps going. I ended up walking the market about three times by the time we got everything we wanted. By the third time, I had people waving at me and acting like we were best friends. I guess my purple hair was memorable. Allison and I even got an invite to dinner by these two Italian men. "You come with me. I'll call my mama, she cook for us!" "We are leaving today." "What? Where you stay. We come pick you up!" They finally gave us a kiss and let us go on our merry way. I would have loved to have a picture of them but I thought they might take it the wrong way. :)

Of course, Florence is famous for the David and duomo with the big red domes. We got to see both. I really wanted to climb the domes but we didn't have time. The duomo (church) was built around the original church. The outside is AMAZING. When we were looking at the outside, Allison said the inside was probably really plain. She totally called it! Plain but still very beautiful. The architectural influences were totally different from Roma. One hundred and fifty years ago (yes, they are celebrating all year long) they were lots of different city states and were finally unified under one government. When traveling, you can see and hear how much of this city-state influence still exists even 150 years later.

Here are my fave pics of Florence!

The beautiful duomo in Florence with the famous red domes. Downtown Florence is a pedestrian only zone. It makes it nice to just walk around and not have to worry about cars or scooters. However, bicycles are allowed and are just as dangerous!

 The inside of the duomo. Allison totally called it when she said it would probably be plain. I actually loved how plain and classic it looked inside. It felt more peaceful than the craziness of St. Peters.

One of the amazing stain glass windows. It was hard to get a picture on them but I could have stood and looked at them for hours. One of the things I love about cathedrals in Europe is how they tell the story of the bible through imagery. These windows definitely told stories. I think this one depicted six different saints. 

 Fascinating clock. Roman numbers 1-24. One starts at the bottom and the numbers go counterclockwise.

 More outside the duomo. Better view of the domes. You could really climb up them and look out over the city. I really, really wanted to but we just didn't have time. The choir had a practice and concert on this day and we were only here for one day so our time was limited.

 The cultural center where David was originally placed (there is a replica of him there still). Ok so, the David is breathtaking. Michaelangelo was truly a genius. He never modeled his sculptures before he started. He would just start hammering away and see what can out of the block. He only worked on a small section at a time. So, he would finish the abs before moving on to the feet, etc. There was never a "rough sketch" of the entire picture. Each piece was completely revealed before he moved on. He sculpted perfect anatomy. The detail in what he created is impossible to describe. I never understood what made him so great until this trip. I definitely appreciate him a lot more now.

Yup, random carousel...of course I got a picture!! :)