This is about our visit to Florence during our Italy Trip in May, 2019

ps: sadly, this isn't set for iPhones/smaller screens… :(

Friday May 10^th (the 2^nd of our 3 Fridays & our trip "hump day") was a nice transition up to the cultural town of Florence…

We had hired a luxury Mercedes (with a great driver!) to get to the train station in Naples for €100, making the trip soooo much nicer than riding the trains coming down to Sorrento last Monday! Tunnels through the mountains & great views en rout… (no snaps) and a long drive!

Our train left precisely on time with superbly comfortable forward-facing seats up to Rome, switching to less delightful backwards-facing seating as we headed north to Florence.
A tad warm on the train, but great weather brought us some awesome sights at 300km per hour (no snaps here either!!)

As we arrived in Florence, we found that we had an *awful* drag-along of our bags across the horribly "lumpy++" streets (the distance seemed short, so we irritatingly decided that no taxi was needed!) and we then found that our hotel had 17-dozen steps *up* (yes, and down!)… no escalator or elevator :(

Check-in was awesome, though, as our clerk (who was able to get us into the museum with a great 4:15pm spot!) & our very muscular young assistant (bags to room)… phew!!

We ran right back out to meet the 4:15 time-slot at the museum (which we barely made…sweatily!) which is part of the huge monumental complex the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in the center, Brunelleschi's Dome, Giotto's Bell Tower, the Baptistery (Battistero) di San Giovanni to the East, Santa Reparata and the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo (our museum) on the Western side… *all* artsy stuff but, just once in a lifetime :)

We went up the 6 or 7 looong flights of stairs to the floor that we planned tp visited… gonna need a beer or 3!!

              

After the afternoon visit we walked past The Baptistery of St. John   The Cathedral     and a Ding-Dong and had dinner.

On Saturday we hiked to the museum, arriving early for the 8:15 opening… a few got in from our line, but it was then closed off to allow tours/etc for ~15 min!! We started with Michaelangelo's awesome (!!) statue of David the Biblical Goliath guy who was carved from a huge block of marble as a 14-feet-tall figure (yes, with a typical Greek penis)
along with a couple of his "prisoners"!! My wife was listening to Rick Steve's audio as we toured, addimg a ton of data.

We went on to visit our 2^nd & 3^rd spots for the rest of the day… Sadly, I've no idea as to which statuary/art/musicals/visuals etc were where — someone sure enjoyed it!

Pianos   and horns   caught "studying"…   the Golden Gate

A visually stunning statue   (zoomed into the base)   and walking by the river   & across the bridge

We headed back to our room & did our one laundry run, w/ice cream :)

Relaxed, & had dinner at the fish place… OMG, sooooo good!

On Sunday, we were up early to go visit our 4^th museum in Florence, which was in the Pitti Palace… yes, lots more art!

Walking & a view from the bridge Entrance Huge pots   Ceilings  

Napolean's actual Bathroom (1813-1821)   Art     an outside view   and more…

We sat down after our all-morning tour for a "wee beer" or 3 w/lunch (!), deaded home ~1pm for a nap!
Out for dinner later with a bottle of Maggiano Chiante wine   was a delight… we slept well!

On Monday, my wife did some more visits for more Florence art / I skipped!

Museum entrance   Crucification     Statuary     and more…

You might now continue on to our next area, Lucca, return to Sorrento, visit Rome or Cortana or return to the main trip page