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Europe 1997

Europe 1997 Day 9: Florence

Saturday April 12, 1997

Decided to stick with our reservations and stay in Florence. It was worth it, for this was our best day here, and possibly the trip. Our first stop of the Day was the Galleria de Academia to see Michaelangelo’s David. Now that is a big statue! We then went to the Duomo and climbed the tower. By this time Mom’s ankle was feeling better, though she only made it 2/3 of the way up. Gary and I made all 408 stairs up and 408 stairs down. The view was worth it, despite the “Suicide Grate” which surrounded the top of the tower.

David, by Michaelangelo is one of the most famous sculptures. This is the David who beat Goliath..
View of Brunelleschi’s Dome, part of the Piazza del Duomo from Giotto’s Bell Tower
Looking Southwest from the Bell Tower towards Piazza della Republica

After catching our breaths, we shopped around. I decided I wanted to see Boticelli’s Birth of Venus at the Ufizi. Mom and Gary opted for more shopping. Inside the Ufizi, I had several Deja-Louvre moments where I couldn’t find my way around or the painting (apparently in my excitement, I missed the complimentary guides to where everything was at the entrance). After an hour of searching, I found the painting and some other great pieces of art by Leonardo, Rafaelo, and others (again with the no picture rule).

Finally found it – no photos allowed, but please enjoy tis photo of it from the museum.
Sandro Botticelli, The Birth of Venus (c. 1484–1486). Tempera on canvas. 172.5 cm × 278.9 cm (67.9 in × 109.6 in). Uffizi, Florence
Statue of Neptune in the Piazza della Signoria outside of the Palace Vecchio
The famous Ponte Vecchio – a shoppers dream

After the Ufizi, met up with Mom and Gary. We got steam-rolled by Andre Agassi’s look alike at a leather shop. End result: Mom and Gary were the proud owners of new coats. Fortunately I was too poor to even think about it. We wandered through some other shops, and then grabbed a quick pizza. Made contact with Nathan regarding tonight’s plans. After wandering for an hour, we finally settled on a nice restaurant for dinner. We ribbed mom endlessly on her Rick Steeves love affair after we spent most of the hour looking for an Ice shop. After dinner, it was back to the hotel.

Nathan called and I met him at the disco from last night at about 11:15pm. We had a great time. We managed to meet some new people at the Disco, and Nathan disappeared for awhile. I was chatting with some people who didn’t speak much English, but a good time was had by all. Let’s see: I was speaking English to Nathan, he was speaking French to this one guy who was speaking Italian to this guy Andre, who seemed pretty nice (at least through 4 people), Nathan and Andre headed off on their own, and I went with the Franco-Italian speaker and his friend Simon (who spoke OK English) over to the other disco. We had a great time, but I finally had my fill of Italian fun at around 5am. I went to bed thinking about the 5 short hours of sleep I will have until we are on a train for Venice.