Florence to Rome

What a hectic day. We woke up early to start a tour of Florence, including the museum where the original David is housed. You will get no pictures of that. Not allowed. It was raining lightly in the morning. After David we walked through the Duomo, the main cathedral of Florence. Then Di and I went our own way to my favorite stop, the Santa Croce church. You'll find out why when we get to those pictures. It wasn't raining by then.

At 4 PM we got on the train for Rome. That was a first for me. It's not a bullet trian, but it was moving pretty good. I would guess approaching 100 MPH, but I'll have to Google that one and find out. When we got to Rome it was raining very hard. Hard enough to prevent us from getting off the bus at first because the road was a river.

Our niece Samantha met us at the hotel and we took the Metro to her apartment one block from the Vatican. Then we ate and had gelato before heading back to the hotel. I'm pretty much exhausted. Here are the best of the pictures. I took too many to post them all.

 

This is all you'll see outside the entrance to the gallery containing the most famous sculpture in the world: David.

 

 

The Florence Duomo. A cathedral like no other in the world.

 

 

Some of th detail on the Duomo.

 

 

Inside the Duomo from the entrance.

 

 

One of many stained glass windows in the Duomo.

 

 

The inside of the dome you saw in the earlier photo of the Duomo.

 

 

A clock in the Duomo. It was a 24 hour clock that ran counter-clockwise. The first hour is at 6 PM, sunset. Rennaisance people wanted to know how many hours it had been since the last sunset.

 

 

Another look at the outside of the Duomo.

 

 

A couple sculptures across from the Uffizi museum.

 

 

The Duomo belltower.

 

 

A typical family tower. This would date back to about the 16th century. These are all over old Florence. Notice the very small original windows.

 

 

A 'fake' David sits where the real one was from 1504 until the 1800's. Weather was damaging it so they moved it inside. The other statute is the original. It is of Hercules. People in the 1500's hated it because he was far too muscular and unrealistic compared to the perfect David. When you see the real David, you can see the veins in the arms that Michelangelo carved in. He is 17 feet tall and was made from one piece of marble.

 

 

That's Diane in red rubbing the pig's nose in Florence. That will bring her good luck. She'll need it at the cruise ship casino.

 

 

This is inside the Santa Croce church in Florence. The dark plaque in the upper right is a tribute to Da Vinci, who is buried in France. So why is Santa Croce special...

 

 

Galileo's tomb.

 

 

A closeup of Galileo's tomb. He is holding a telescope and looking at the stars, as is virtually every figure in the sculpture and mural.

 

 

Michelangelo's tomb.

 

 

Closeup of Michelangelo's tomb.

 

 

Dante's tomb. Machiavelli was there too, but you get the idea.

 

 

 

A sacristy in Santa Croce.

 

 

The outside of the Santa Croce church.

 

 

The train station in Florence. Similar to an airport except pretty much total mayhem.

 

Tomorrow is the Vatican and Sistine Chapel.