by Keith and Heather Nicol
After leaving reluctantly
San Gimignano we headed to the Florence airport to return our rental car
|
David by Michaelangelo |
and
then taxied in to Florence to the Wow Florence Hostel. We had planned our trip
to finish in Florence since although we started in Florence 2 weeks earlier, at
that time we were just getting our bearings and getting over jet lag from our long
flight from Vancouver. This time we wanted to see the famous statue David in
the Galleria dell'Accademia which was just a few blocks from where we were
staying. Since it was Sunday and we knew that the Galleria dell'Accademia was
closed Mondays this was our last chance since our return flight to Vancouver
was 10:00 am on Tuesday morning. The front desk staff at the Wow Florence Hostel
told us that the first Sunday in each month many museums were free and we
thought that this meant we had no chance to get into the Gallerie since there
are usually long lines to get in and if it was free entry the lines would be
extra long. Well were we surprised when we arrived to a line that was just 2
minutes long!! We couldn’t believe our luck and so spent the next 90 minutes
touring the Gallerie with its many statues and paintings. No wonder Florence is
considered to be the centre of renaissance art in Italy.
|
View of Florence from the Tower |
|
The Cathedral and Tower |
The next day (our last in Italy) we got up
early and headed for the Duomo and bought a 15 euro
pass to see a variety of
buildings in this extremely popular part of Florence. We were glad we got there
just as they were opening (9:00am) since we had wanted to climb the tower, see the
museum, tour the cathedral and see the crypt. By the time we left at noon the long
lines were snaking from all venues and by this time it was much hotter and
shade was harder to find. We really enjoyed the museum which had an intriguing section
on the building of the huge dome with models and examples of period construction
techniques and tools. We also thought the tower was well worth the climb and
our only regret was that we had not planned ahead and booked a spot to also climb
to the top of the Duomo since it is so popular you need to reserve ahead. We spent the afternoon wondering down to the Arno River
before returning to the hostel to pack and get ready for our departure the next
day. We had hoped to see the Uffizi Gallery (it was closed Monday) as well as
get to several other sites but that will have to wait until our next visit.
Arrivederci Florence.
|
Along the Arno River in Florence |
No comments:
Post a Comment