Our First Day of touring in Italy

Florence, Italy

The capital of the Tuscany Region.

Our first stop was The Galleria dell'Accademia to see Michelangelo's David.....

It is amazing to me that Michelangelo sculpted "free hand" straight into the marble without planning and sculpting a plaster version first.

This room is filled with plaster sculptures that were created by the artists before starting to carve into marble.  The dots on these sculptures were a form of measurement the artists used to create their marble statues.

This plaster sculpture was done by Giambologna.  The marble sculpture is featured prominently in the Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence's Piazza della Signoria.

 

There were musicians everywhere playing Italian music.  

I loved it!  It added to the whole experience.

 This is the Florence Cathedral.  

The scaffolding was there to clean the front of the Cathedral.

 

 

 

 We ate lunch at this sidewalk cafe in front of The Basilica di Santa Croce.

 The waitress took our picture! The food was wonderful!!

 Pinocchio was everywhere in Florence!
Here, he looks amazingly like Wayne!


The Uffizi Gallery......

It was very crowded, so I didn't take as many photos here.  It was difficult not to get someone's head in the picture.  So, I looked up!  The ceilings were amazing!  So much detail!!

Views from the Uffizi Gallery.....

Views from the Piazzale Michelangelo overlooking the city of Florence.....

These were taken with my phone because I took so
 many photos that day that my camera battery died!!


There was a gelato shop on almost every corner and it was delicious!!
I made sure to stop at one of these shops every day!!

Our first day was wonderful!  So many things to see and so much great food to eat!