Florence Italy

Travelled:40km
Visited:Florence
Stay:Florence- €15 parking GPS N43.79491 E11.24835

The thunderstorms rumbled over during the night and stayed around for the first part of the morning. By the time we drove into the parking area in Florence that we had chosen from the camperstop book and had breakfast, the sun was out.

 Most of the motorhomes parked here are in storage but we did happen to spot a german couple who told us that the Bus #4 stop was just up the road 100m. We caught the 10:30am bus and bought a €2 ticket on the bus. We later found out that we could pre-purchase €1.20 tickets from the newsagents/bars or as we did a €4.70/4 trip pass (for tomorrow). Our aim for today was to go and see Michelangelo's statue of David, which we had reserved tickets at 1:45pm bought on the internet on the official musuem web page www.firenzemusel.it . Since we had a bit of time we walked to the cathedral. It is such a beautiful structure with polychrome marble panels in various shades of green and pink bordered by white. It has the largest brick dome ever constructed which is 114.5m high. 

 The decorated facade was not completed until 1887. 

We got in the short line for the free entry into the cathedral and admired the vast and empty gothic interior. 

There were a few outstanding features;  the painting Dante and the Devine Comedy, 

the frescoe Equestrian statue of Niccolo de Tolentino, 

the 24 hour colossal clock face,

 the paintings in the dome which took 11 years to complete.

Cathedral workshop.

 We then took our time to venture up to the Accademia Gallery to wait in the line for our reserved entry time, it was worth the extra €4 a ticket, as the un-reserved ticket line was very long. The over 5m high and 6 ton statue of David certainly makes an impression and yes he does have over sized hands, due to the orginal placement of David was to have been on the cathedral.

 It is an amazing masterpiece and was great to see here even though there is a replica in the Palazzo della Signoria, where the statue was originaly placed in 1504 but moved to the gallery for preservation in 1873. After spending a couple of hours in the gallery (there were other exhibits), 

Plaster casts of original statues.

Lots of rooms dedicated to church artefacts.

we walked down to the Vecchio Bridge. On the way we stopped in the Palazzo della Signoria to admire the numerous statues, especially the Fountain of Neptune. 

The bridge also has an interesting history for having been saved from destuction by Hitler in WWII. It is also noted for having shops built along it. Initially they were butcher shops but since 1593 the shops are selling jewellery. 

 

 On the way back to the bus stop we walked past the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella. 

More images of Florence....

Church of Orsanmichele.