Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Firenze, Italy [Part I]

The day after we arrived in Italy we decided, spur of the moment, to drive into Firenze.  The goal was to find Piazza Michelangelo, which has free parking.  This proved to be quite difficult.  In the process I conducted a high speed U-turn and cracked the front tire on the curb.  This resulted in a small blemish to the passenger side hub-cap.  Thankfully, this was the only damage the car sustained during the 5 week lease [yes, we returned it yesterday in Rome].  This was an amazing feat given the narrow passages, one way streets, and crazy drivers we encountered.  We managed to log 5000 km on the Peugeot in 5 weeks.


After parking we decided to wander into old Firenze, which is off limits to cars and maintains the appearance of a true medieval city.  You can close your eyes and imagine Davinci, Michelangelo and Galileo all walking the streets of Firenze.



Our first stop was the Museo Galileo: http://www.museogalileo.it/en/visit.html  The scientific tools, telescopes, thermometers, meteorological equipment and globes were incredible.  At the time, artists were suppressed by politics and the church, so many artists applied themselves to the sciences.  It really shows in the craftsmanship of the scientific tools.  One of the big attractions of the Museum is a preserved finger of Galileo.  There is a guard that prevents photos being taken, but I had to take a quick shot when she was not looking [I generally do not do this and it makes for lousy pictures]:


We then went to the DaVinci museum, which was so-so.  It was a large area that had several of DaVinci's machines built from his designs.  The kids could touch them and crank the wheels, so they enjoyed themselves.  It was a little pricey for what it was.



The Duomo in Firenze is breath-taking [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Cathedral]  It is also packed with tourists, scam artists and pickpockets.




The line up for the Uffizi and the Accademia [the two museums that many great works of art] were prohibitively long and it started to rain.  We bought reserved tickets for Sunday, which allowed us to skip the line.  We then trudged back up to Piazza Michelangelo, in the rain and went back to Barberino Val D'Elsa to dry off.


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