Firenze, pt 2!

Thursday

Thursday most of the group went to Lucca, but I stayed behind with MB. I had 4 full days and I wanted as much of Florence as possible. MB (Mary Beth, fellow companion) was gracious enough to let me play tourist since she's been to most of the places in Florence already.

I first went to the Accademia di Belle Arti, which houses quite the many works of art by Italian masters. But the real gem is that this place houses the original David by Michelangelo. I walked up to David and walked around, slowly, with a big smile on my face. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. After learning about this in numerous classes and seeing pictures, I was standing feet away from this massive work. Talk about being star struck. The sculpture is so perfectly done, I swear it was breathing. It's that lifelike.


After we headed to the Basilica di San Lorenzo, another massive but beautiful church. It's here that many members of the Medici family are buried. Unfortunately I missed them because of the weird times, but I was able to look inside. What struck me is that most of the churches we went to charged admission. In France most churches are free with a few exceptions. But I took advantage of the side entrance reserved for prayer. I did pray and light a candle, but it allowed me some time to enjoy the basilica's beauty and not pay. I do think it's a scandal to charge admission. At least say it's a donation to restoration work or something.

Since we had some time left, I ventured over to the Basilica di Santa Croce, which is also known as the Temple of the Italian Glories. Why? Well, because the following greats are buried here:

Galileo
Machiavelli 
Foscolo 
Gentile
Rossini


Yup, and they even have a tomb for Dante... even though he's not buried there. Poor Florence can't even get a favorite son's body back. It's a darn shame. But the church is really neat, tons of frescos everywhere and a lot of floor tombs. I loved the floor tombs, but how surprised are you about that? 


Oh, and later that night some of us went out. It was SO MUCH FUN. After we found one of Florence's secret bakeries. You find out about these places by word of mouth, and there is nothing sweeter than a chocolate cream croissant in the early hours of the morning.