Florence

After spending a day in Venice we took a train to Florence. We met a nice couple on the train from Chicago and enjoyed chating with them during the ride. They were on their way to Rome so they were excited to have someone else to talk for a couple of hours.

Florence is an amazing city. In the old town it really feels like you are back in the Renaissance. We could so easily picture Michelangelo, Di Vinci and the others walking the streets of Florence. Neither Chris or I had a lot of knowledge about art history but we were able to learn a lot here.

The Duomo Cathedral. The outside of this cathedral was amazing! The detail and colors were very impressive.

This is where the original David stood before he was moved to the Academia Gallery. One of the highlights of Florence was seeing the original David by Michelangelo.

The original David statue stood in front of the powerful Medici family palace. This one here is a replica.

We spend a lot of our time walking around exploring the city. We did the Rick Steve's Renaissance Walk tour which was fantastic. He does a great job, he is a little odd but still enjoyable.

We learned that this bronze door is where the Renaissance began. Art moved from two dimensional to three dimensional.

This is inside Duomo Cathedral. The outside is made of unique red and green marble but the inside is quite simple.

There were a lot of statues.

These guys were my favorite. There would be people walking everywhere and these guys would put their pictures on the pathway. We actually saw one tourist accidentitly step on the picture and the guy was so upset. I mean come on guy how many of us are staring at the ground when we are walking? I never really saw anyone purchase these paintings because they have been on the ground and were dirty.

This is from our hotel's terrace. I absolutely hated are hotel in Florence but the terrace was nice.

We went to a park to get see a great view of the city. We found these cool little structures on our way up to the park. Sorry it is kind of blurry.

In the Medici Palace.

In the Uffizi museum. You couldn't take pictures of any of the art but we were able to get a picture in the hallway.

The Duomo and Tower from the terrace of our hotel.

We really enjoyed Florence. If you ever have the chance we definitely think it is worth a visit :)