Day 6 - Touring Firenze e cena a Villa Machiavelli

Friday was another big day, so many experiences.

We departed the hotel around 8 or 8:30, to meet our local specialist, Madelaine. at the Accademia to get a guided tour of Michelangelo's David and the Museum.

Every local specialist we have had make the experience far more meaningful. There is so much more than a statue that one would never realize without someone like Maddy explaining it.

Of course the museum center piece is David but there are so many other sculptures in the museum to see including unfinished works of Michelangelo.

The hall is huge with David getting the spotlight..of course. Maddy explained that David was done by Michelangelo as a challenge using inferior marble, starting with a piece another sculptor discarded as not suitable. He was also the only famous sculptor that never used a plaster model, he felt the piece was already in the marble, you just had to let it out.  Interesting character.

Michelangelo, made form a wax mask at his death, he died at 89, in 1564, pretty old for that time.

 Maddy says his hands are large on purpose, because of where he was going to be placed (up high), they needed to be over sized to appear real. He left no detail out, like the veins in the right hand.

David is holding the rock he will slay Goliath with.

Academia is a teaching institution and contains many sculptures used in teaching that art.

After Academia we followed Maddy through the streets of Florence, this is not small feat, the cars and mosquitoes (mopeds) are crazy.

Arriving at the The Duomo of Florence: Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore.

It is even more spectacular from the front. We did not climb the tower...just not enough time.

The Medici Palace in Florence is surrounded by sculptures.

These statues are just sitting out in public..amazing.

Medusa

It seems on every turn there is a beautiful piazza.

This is Santa Croce Square, where Michelangelo is buried

We stopped here from lunch, very small and quaint, but we had a robust lunch of meats, cheese and bread for 5 EU per person.

My buddy Jim G. recommended this place...good call.

It the afternoon we visited the largest leather store in Italy, the Malloys did some coat shopping, I bought a nice leather trash can...classy.

From there we took the long way to the science museum, Museo Galileo. It has many of the instruments of that time and three of his fingers on display.

The man and the man.













From the art museum we walked back to the hotel...for a siesta before our dinner excursion.

We boarded the bus at 17:30 for Villa Machiavelli.

The drive there was exciting, Fabio is a Maestro of the bus, he seems to defy physics on a regular basis. He is a true professional.

As we entered the villa we were welcomed with a special drink.

The furniture in this place is very old..leather chairs.

For dinner we entered the wine cellars where we crossed in tunnels under the road to another part of the villa..

Huge barrels of wine in the cellars.

We had a dinner of at least five courses with special wine with each course and live music.

The wines were from their own vineyards.

The main course was prime rib and excellent.









Overall it was wonderful dinner as we entered the bus Fabrizio said we were going to a Disco, that seemed strange.  Well, as soon as the bus was underway we were entertained with disco music, and the whole bus participated, it made for a fun ride.

Saturday we will drive to Verona and explore that for a few hours over lunch then take a water taxi to our hotel in Venice. Should be interesting.