Florence

Wednesday 4^th May

Florence

A tour around the city of Florence was to start the day.   The tour commenced at Galleria dell Accademia which is the museum that houses Michelangelo’s David.  First off we saw the prisoners or slaves, the works that Michelangelo did not complete, called this because they are prisoners in the stone, trying to emerge.  The whole process of making these wonderful sculptures  is fascinating and much more detailed than I had realised, but one can certainly see the necessity for it.  And then of course there was David, a truly magnificent sculpture.  Everyone has seen copies of David all over the world but he really is something in the flesh so to speak.  The veins in his hands, to the tendons and whether it is depicting before or after his slaying of goliath I am not sure.  But he3 certainly is a fine sculpture. We looked around the museum and saw the plaster cast room at some very fine sculptures.

We then walked around the city streets of Florence looking at the buildings from medieval times. Whilst we have been in Florence we have had demonstrations from gold shops, many on the tour have purchased  gold and we also had a leather demonstration,  the leathers are really beautiful.  After the tour we were set free in Florence.  We decided not to do the optional tour later in the day, choosing to do a bit more shopping and to have a bit of down time.  We had a lovely look around the shops and went back to the hotel to skype home, but weren’t very successful this time, but did manage to get grandma and Krissy for about a minute.  In the afternoon we did a bit more shopping and I picked myself up a lovely pair of Italian leather boots, only half boots but I am very pleased with my acquisition.  We walked around the various churches and squares snapping at all the various sculptures and then walked back along the river Arno and had a look at Ponte Vecchio where it is reported that there is a lot of pickpockets. 

When we arrived back at the hotel himself decided to attempt to follow up our luggage again.  Voila it was at the Florence airport.  When he got there he was told that they only had one case, the other was still in MADRID!  But we now have our main suitcase in our procession.  We are thrilled about this.  Who knows where the other case is and when and if it will turn up.

We had a great dinner last night, it was an all you can drink affair.  We capitalised on this offer and had a brilliant evening.