Europe 2017 - The Accademia, Medici Chapel, and The Pitti Palace

After a good night's rest - and a little sleeping in for the first time on the trip! - we were ready for a full day of sights. First on the list: The Accademia. What's at the Accademia?

This guy.

We used our Firenze Pass to bypass the regular entrance line that stretched around the building. Yes, we felt quite a bit of smug satisfaction. (Yes, it was the same feeling we had at Disney World with our Fast Pass rides.) We got in, realized Lance didn't have his Rick Steve's Accademia audio tour downloaded (*gasp*) and so we each shared one of my ear buds. So imagine us linked at the ears (so cool), wandering a bit in the first room, only to finally find the right doorway and WHAM.

There's David.

It was AMAZING.

I'm a little embarrassed to say I teared up just a little. I was in awe! I had studied this statue, read up about it, seen hundreds of pictures, but the real thing is just so incredible. It was a bit surreal to be there.

He obviously draws a crowd, so it was kinda hard to get a good picture.

It really did make me just so happy to be there, listening to Rick Steve's talk about the statue and Michelangelo, and staring at him. Just beautiful.

The Accademia isn't really that big of a museum - people come to really just see the star of the show - but we looked at the other sections as well. This hall full of plaster casts made by art students (from Michelangelo's time) was pretty intriguing. We watched a little movie about how and why the students learn to make the plaster casts, and it was really quite interesting.

I saw this one and thought "Tess should be this angel for Halloween next year. It'd be pretty easy to do."

Then I saw this one and thought "Cole should be this for Halloween next year - it'd be super easy!" (Cole did not like this idea when I told him about it later.)

There was also a musical instruments section of the museum. Did you know that pianos were invented in Florence? I sure didn't. This here is the very first upright piano ever. We also watched a little movie about the difference between harpsichords and pianos.

As a pianist, this was pretty cool!

Medieval trumpets.

An "extinct" instrument called the snake horn. We told Josh he should try to play that in band next year. He rolled his eyes.

After the Accademia we found this little nearby square where we ate some snacks and rejuvenated. (Mid-morning snack = essential) There was, of course, a fountain. It was also rainy off and on most of the day.

I loved walking through the streets and seeing the duomo peeking out in the background.

We tried to go tour the Riccardi Medici Palace, but there was a union protest going on at the entrance and we got the feeling they wouldn't take too kindly to us trying to get through. They were noisy but not threatening. It was interesting. A bunch of bored looking cops stood across the street from them. I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture, but I blame this on 1) I was really quite ticked we couldn't tour the palace, and 2) I was a bit stressed because we had just tried to get some more cash and the ATM machine we used wouldn't accept any of our cards. (No cash in a foreign country makes for stressful travel. No worries - we got some from a different place later.)

So we went over to the Basilica di San Lorenzo - so we could go tour the Medici Chapel. Good heavens, those Medicis had more money than they knew what to do with! Even with the restorations going on it was still a pretty impressive sight. That Michelangelo knew how to make dramatic chapels! We also saw approximately 937 relics, none of which were labeled in English, so who knows whose bones those were.

All the different colors of marble were really cool.

After that we decided to try the Mercato Centrale for lunch. It's like this big indoor market, and on the bottom is all the fresh stuff you can buy and on the top is like a ginormous food court. So we decided to eat at this fresh pasta place. They were kinda slow, but Lance eventually got his meal. But mine? I waited and waited and waited - and then decided they had forgotten my order. So I tried explaining this, but no one I talked to spoke English all that well. But then one of the cooks finally stepped in and figured things out and 20 - TWENTY - minutes later I finally had my gnocchi! And it was really good. But not waiting for 20 minutes good. However, it was fairly impressive to listen to the cook and the order girl fight - in Italian - about whose fault this was. I mean, I don't speak Italian, but I was pretty sure I got the gist of that argument.

After lunch we decided to head back to the apartment for an afternoon rest. (We did this a lot. It was necessary.) We passed some guy playing Beatle's songs on a saxophone. Odd.

More obligatory pictures of the duomo as we walked past it to get home.

Our apartment was really in a great location. Two minutes from the Ponte Vecchio, 5 to the duomo; the furthest we ever walked was about 20 minutes.

I blessed Alessio as I sipped one of his Cokes that afternoon.

Their sodas are tall and skinny.

I also realized that I should probably buy our train tickets to Rome. So I did. Hooray for the internet!

After our rest we decided to check out the Arno river and the famous Ponte Vecchio.

It was pretty touristy. Lots of people, lots of jewelry stores on either side of the bridge. But it had a fountain! And it was pretty scenic.

We decided to go see the Pitti Palace. The palace, which was built in the 15th century, is now a big ol' museum. We saw A LOT of stuff. Including more relics!

We also saw lots and lots of lavishly furnished rooms. And some more fountains!

I thought these two guys looked like Josh and Cole in the pool.

And here's Tess trying to swim.

The courtyard at the palace. Pitti is a pretty large and imposing structure - not nearly as pretty as the castles we saw in Germany!

Lots of old statues inside, too. In fact, after a while you just kinda become immune to them.

We couldn't go wander Boboli Gardens because it was too late in the day. Bummer.

But we got to see even more lavish rooms!

Lance complained his eyes hurt after seeing all of it.

Obligatory night photo with the Ponte Vecchio behind us. (We're on a different bridge.)

 It really is a pretty sight at night, just hard to capture the scene.

That night we ate dinner out in the Piazza della Signora. It was a bit touristy, but the views were worth it. It was chilly but they gave us blankets to keep us warm. It was nice to just sit and relax - and listen to the Australian 20-something bozo trying to shmooze the girl he was with. (Really, he was loud and a little obnoxious and totally fun to listen to and laugh at. Hah!)

It was the perfect way to end the day.