Florence

Firenze was wonderful. Everyone was out and about on the town 2 days before Christmas, searching for last minute gifts. Although, I find Italians to be window shoppers, so who knows if they were actually looking for gifts for people or just looking like they always do. Nate was amazed at how slow everyone walked, or I should say, strolled. It can drive a person crazy if you were in a hurry.


We went to the Uffizi Gallery. Very nice museum, it was an old palace of the Medici. We just kept thinking, who needs that much space?



The next day after an incredible breakfast offered by our hotel, we headed out to see David at the Accademia. I always expect lines, but we just walked right in. There were only about 10 people in the gallery when we came upon David. I was quite awestruck when I saw him. The statue is just so real. The rest of the museum is not that great, they pretty much have David and that's it. We spent the rest of the day walking around Florence since the weather was nice. It was sunny and beautiful. We crossed the Ponte Vecchio and went to the top of one of the hills whose name I have completely forgotten. There was a great view of the city.



On Christmas day we awoke to church bells every half hour. Since we were so close to the Duomo, I figured we would hear something. But then I also realized we were close to every other church in downtown Florence, so it was a church bell extravaganza! That day we took it easy and since nothing was open anyways, we just strolled the streets. It was eerily deserted, kind of a nice change from the craziness we saw just 2 days prior.