Firenze, Italy [Part II]

We were ready for Firenze on Sunday and we drove directly to Piazzale Michelangelo without a u-turn or a scraped wheel.  The walked directly to the Accademie, as our reservation was at 10:00.  We passed a long line of tourists [without a reservation] and walked right into the museum.  First class baby.

The main attraction is Michelangelo's David, which is pretty spectacular and heavily guarded by staff yelling "no photos".  So here is the next best thing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_(Michelangelo)

The reason for the strict "no photo" policy becomes apparent in the gift shop, where you can purchase a variety of different photos of David from various angles.

The Accademia had an excellent exhibition of the work of Lorenzo Bartolini.  Bartolini got his start in Volterra carving alabaster and graduated to marble commissions.  His work is incredible.  The exhibit had examples of the entire process, from the plaster casts, scaled down models to the finished work.  Once again, no photos, but here is a link to the exhibition: http://www.polomuseale.firenze.it/english/mostre/mostra.asp?id=237

Given the fact that we now "knew" Firenze, we could wander around without the fear of getting lost.  We took some photos of things that we marveled at during our first visit, but were to overwhelmed to snap a picture:

There were amazing sculptures and reliefs at every turn, including the doors and walls of the buildings:

The street artists:

and even Porcellino, the lucky bronze boar [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porcellino]:

Finally, we visited the Uffizi, which housed the huge art collection of the Medici family [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uffizi].  The most celebrated pieces in the collection include Botticelli's Birth of Venus [which is huge and incredible] and works of Rapheal [who is buried in the Pantheon next to our Hotel] and Caravaggio.

After our art overload, we decided to take a different way home and ended up lost in Tuscany, which is something I highly recommend.  We had a map and guided our way through mountain villages, deep valleys and an amazing sunset.  Here are a few photos we snapped along the way [a little blurry]:

We decided that we could not capture the beauty of Tuscany with a camera.  We returned to our apartment and packed up to leave to Rome in the morning.  Here is a final picture of our little hamlet of Barberino Val D'Elsa on Monday morning as we left.

Next, on to Rome.