Buonjourno and Coffees at the Counter,
We have hit our stride by day three with coffees ordered and drunk at the counter like locals and at a third of the price! The cafes and the quality of coffee and cakes is just brilliant. These efficient traders are lovely bunch of people to start your day with a smile and caffeine hit!
Today we are heading to see what is thought to be the most beautiful statue in the world- Michaelangelo's David. We were in awe of this amazing work and stood spellbound for ages just looking at what Michaelangelo had created from a block of marble that two artists before him had previously rejected as too stripey and too fragile. David was originally posted outside the Palazzo del Vecchio, but his left arm was broken off in a riot in the late 15 hundreds which has since been reattached. In the mid 1800's the city's leaders decided to move him indoors for better long term protection and purposely built the dome glass ceilinged room onto the academy where he is now housed. In the late 1990's a nutter with a concealed hammer starter attacking David's left foot and damaged the toes before he was stopped and you can still this damage today. He needs a pedicure but Michaelangelo isn't around to do it.
Now we did discuss the questionable size of David's appendage vis a vis his height and frame but there is a perfectly logical reason. The proportions of the David are atypical of Michelangelo's work; the figure has an unusually large head and hands (particularly apparent in the right hand). These enlargements may be due to the fact that the statue was originally intended to be placed on the cathedral roofline, where the important parts of the sculpture would necessarily be accentuated in order to be visible from below. Hence the size of a teeny todger wasn't regarded as important! So there!
After the beauty of David we stopped for lunch. At a lovely little streetside cafe, you sit cheek by jowl with other patrons. On one side of us we had a table of Texan ladies, Misty, Dotty, Joan and Roberta who had finished lunch, discussing the divorce settlement of one of the ladies- a total 50% each way split that they thought was ghastly unfair to their friend and were settling up the bill. As I said, our tables are about 5cm's apart .
They then began to work out the attributable split to their bill of $53.80. Why do I know this? Because they spent the next 25 minutes loudly counting out who had what and adding it up (incorrectly three times on a note pad. So loud and frustrating were these women that we nearly offered to pay their bill just so that we could be rid of them. I head to the loo only to return to another lot of American ladies having sat down on the other side off us asking each other "so do we know what rocket is ?" and whipped out a notebook to tally up who owed what for which glass of wine that was had at dinner last night by whom. We had to leave the restaurant before I caused a major international incident of mass genocide!! Siobhan was nearly exploding with laughter!!!
Next we headed to Palazzo Medici-Riccardi which was the first pre-rule home of the Medici. It was the prototype for all palazzos in Florence and contains the most exquisite Chapel of the Magi where only 12 people are allowed at any one time. The most amazing thing about Florence is that even thought the place is teeming with tourists, they actually only go into the Uffizi and the Acedemia where David is- the other palazzos and museums are so quiet and comfortably accessible. We are enjoying seeing these amazing places with no queues or crowds.
An early dinner for us as we head to the Duomo tomorrow for a guided tour and then the climb up 483 steps to the dome to look out over Florence.
Pray for my calves and knees please good people
Kelly & Siobhan xxx
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