Firenze

We began today by having a group photo on a hill overlooking Florence. Beautiful day except that most of us were trying hard not to squint as we faced the bright sun for the photo.



We then headed into the main square of Florence - Piazza della Signoria - to meet our local guide for a walking tour around the city. In Italy they have registered guides to help the locals keep their jobs rather than losing it to the millions of tour groups which come through with their own guide.






The main square contains several sculptures including a copy of Michaelangelo's David, Perseus and the Rape of the Sabine Woman. The guide took us to the Ponte Vecchio bridge, the duomo and baptistry.
Following the walking tour we had a leather demonstration giving us tips on how to identify real leather and as it turns out smell isn't a sure indicator and neither is attempting to burn it, as real leather will burn. The only real way of telling whether it is real leather is to check for suede on the underside - however as most leather products have a lining, this is pretty much impossible in most cases.



Following the leather demo we checked out the Church of Santa Croce and then grabbed some lunch before heading to the Galleria del Accademia to check out the real Michaelangelo's David. The museum also contained a small gallery of Renaissance paintings and had an exhibition on Firenzo Monaco works. We also looked at the small musical instruments museum. The real David was amazing. They also had a 3D model on the computer where you could view from any angle, zoom in/out and adjust the light source and get realistic shadows. There were also some of Michaelangelo's other sculptures which were never completed.



After the Accademia we went into the Doumo. It is an amazing cathedral and we could see up to the huge dome.





We then did the climb to the top of the dome. The structure of the Duomo consists of two domes one within the other (the inside dome and the roof). As you climb up to the lantern part of the structure, you're climbing in between the two domes.



One also gets views of the amazing paintings on the inside of the dome on the way up. Once at the top there the views were fantastic, giving 360 degrees view of the city of Florence.






From the Duomo we went on a hunt for gelato, while there were plenty of stores around, it was not particularly cheap. We found a couple of girls on the tour in a gelataria and ended up getting some gelato there. As we were feeling quite tired at this stage and still had a bit of time to kill before meeting up for dinner, we just hanged out in the sculpture square with some others.
Dinner was pasta and chicken cachaturia.