Florence, Italy

Our first stop was in Florence, home of Michelangelo.  His artwork is EVERYWHERE!  From the planning of churches, to sculptures, to paintings.

The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, or The Florence Cathedral.  Was begun in 1296 (surprise surprise, remnants of the much older cathedral can be seen beneath it), and was built with a hole in the ceiling waiting for someone to figure out how to cover it with a dome, which was done in 1436.  The colorful exterior wasn't added until the 1800's. 

 

 The interior is very simple.

 In front of the Duomo is the Baptistery.  Built between 1059 and 1128.  As you can see it's older than the Cathedral.  When the baptistery was finished, it put the super old duomo to shame, so they tore it down and built a new Cathedral. 

Even Laney enjoyed the pretty pictures on the ceiling inside the Baptistery. 

Can you believe those are Mosaic's up there?  Gorgeous!  

We also enjoyed the occasional Christmas tree,

Piazza's,

and snacks on a bench. 

 Palazzo Vecchio.  Palace of the powerful Medici's (familiy who ruled florence during the Renaissance and supported all this cool art we see here today) turned town hall.  Everytime I see it I think of Robin Hood trying to break in and save Maid Marion.  Outside the front door was where the famous David statue originally stood.  It was moved inside a museum and a copy now stands in it's place. 

The courtyard of the Palazzo Vecchio

The Uffizi Gallery.  Built in 1560 to house the Medici's treasures, it became open to the public in 1765.  So pretty much an old museum turned into a.....museum.  

Of course, pictures were not allowed.  At least they allowed strollers.  So I found a few pictures of our favorites.  

Botticelli's "Primavera" (shown) and birth of Venus (didn't want to post pictures of naked people, Laney was asking some pretty delicate questions while we were there)

 

This was my favorite painting.  Michelangelo's Madonna with Child.   It was the only one that showed them as a normal family with a normal toddler.  Mary isn't sitting all prim and proper on a throne, she's resting on the ground.  Instead of Jesus sitting calmly in her lap, he's climbing over her shoulder.

The Accademia Museum.  

Really the only cool thing to see here with this famous guy.  
At 17 feet tall, it was pretty impressive.  Michelangelo sculped David when he was in his early 20's.  The detail's were amazing!

Thankfully the girls slept through both of our museum visits, but by the end they were looking like this.....

So we headed out to find some fun entertainment for them. 

Gelato was always an effective bribe. 

Ponte Vecchio.  During WWII Hitler destroyed all the briges over this river...except for this one.  He declared it too beautiful to destroy.  Nice to know even mad men have some respect for art.

Fun night view of the city

We always rewarded the end of a long busy day with good food...

and a good nights rest.