Day 2,816 of Traveling the World | Florence (Firenze), Italy | October 18, 2025
Jan and Mike
Wow! Michelangelo – Dante – Botticelli – Da Vinci – Vespucci – Galileo – Donatello – de’Medici – Florence Nightingale – even Machiavelli! – were all born in Florence. What an interesting and majestic array of talent. And Florence itself is a very compact city. We were there for five days and as we wandered around, looking for new streets where we hadn’t yet been, we eventually found that we had already passed most of the museums, churches, and monuments — several times.
Our lovely hotel was just across the Arno River near the Ponte Vecchio, which is one of the few internationally known bridges that has shops filling its crossing, called an inhabited bridge. There is a gap in the middle of the bridge to facilitate views and photos, but the rest is jewelry/art/souvenir shops (originally butchers, tanners, and farmers). There had been a bridge in this spot since Roman times. In WWII, the Ponte Vecchio was the only bridge in Florence to survive.
We will be returning for more of Florence in the future, and as usual, we didn’t try to do everything. There is the Uffizi Gallery, which we saw many years ago, and will be due for a second visit soon. The Florence Duomo is impressive, and is free to enter. We tried to see it both early and late in the day, and the line wrapped around the church with what looked like a two-hour wait: not something we were interested in. We could have gotten in faster had we bought a ticket, which would include access to the bell tower (climbing 414 steps), the dome (climbing 463 steps) and the baptistry. But we weren’t about to climb all of those steps, so it just wasn’t worth it to us to buy a ticket! We passed one morning at 9:00 am (the Duomo opens to visitors at 10:15), and there were already about 100 people in line.
Michelangelo’s David! There were no steps to climb, so we paid €20 each to enter the Galleria dell’Accademia to behold this marvel. There are no words. Unveiled in 1504, Michelangelo started sculpting it when he was 26 years old and completed it in three years. It stood outside the Palazzo Vecchio, in the elements, for 369 years before it was moved indoors. You gasp when you see the statue, as he is 17 feet tall. It is one of the most amazing humanmade things we have ever seen. It was like being in the presence of The Sacred – which we also felt the year we first visited Yosemite. We had seen videos and photos, and knew what to expect (just like seeing David). But in person, standing in Yosemite Valley and looking up and around, there was just awe – and tears. Same for David.
Seeing the veins in his arms and hands – his fingers and toes – his curly hair – his kneecaps – all perfect, it is evident that Michelangelo had studied anatomy at his young age. When we looked at other sculptures after we studied and admired David for 45 minutes or so, it was amazing to us how the arms and legs on the others just looked like smooth tubes, with no anatomical definition. See the photos below!
The lovely Ponte Vecchio.
Walking across the Ponte Vecchio, it looks any ordinary street. You have to keep reminding yourself that you are walking over water!
The Ponte Santa Trinita, the next bridge after the Ponte Vecchio. The four corners of the bridge are adorned with statues depicting the Four Seasons.
As we were crossing the Santa Trinita one afternoon, we came across…wedding photos. We were hoping that the photographer wouldn’t fall backward into the Arno, as the wall is not very wide. The bride kept swishing her train back and forth, up and down — she didn’t quite know where to put it!
David. His height is 17 feet. His weight is 12,000 pounds. He is carved from a discarded piece of marble. With the pedestal, he towers to 24 feet.Truly colossal and magnificent.
A copy of this statue was cast for the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Queen Victoria was absolutely shocked by his nudity, so the staff kept a removable fig leaf for her visits. “Oh, no! Here she comes! Quick…”
The sling across his back and the tree trunk were once covered in gold leaf, but after 369 years outdoors, the gold leaf eroded away.
Now, notice in “Orphaned Girl,” sculpted by Luigi Pampaloni in 1838 – more than 300 years after David was sculpted! – how the arms and legs look like tubes – no definition or musculature whatsoever.
A beautiful Florentine building with lovely scroll work.
A street artist was drawing with chalk on the pavement. The top photo is the original, while the bottom is his drawing. Pretty good! Musicians put out a cup for donations, and he did, too. Since weplanned to use the photo in our blog, and since the drawing was so remarkable, we donated.
The Palazzo Vecchio.A small reproduction of David is on the left of the entrance.
Just inside the palace is this open-air atrium.
An array of statues is in the square across from the palace.
The Fountain of Neptune in the Piazza Della Signoria, created by Bartolomeo Ammannati between 1563-1565. The statue was initially unpopular with the Florentines, who called it Il Biancone, “the big white lump.”
Also in front of the Palazzo Vecchio is this modern sculpture, titled Time Unfolding by British artist Thomas J. Price. We like how the real woman fit in perfectly with the statue!
Florentine fashion, anyone? The shoes could poke an eye out!
More fashion…an ominous handbag in the Braccialini shop.
…also, a toadstool purse and other animals…
We went to the Salvatore Ferragamo Museum depicting his shoes over the decades. He was known asShoemaker to the Stars, having emigrated from Florence to Hollywood in 1915. He opened his first store across from Graumann’s Egyptian Theater in 1923.
Like a glass-bottom boat, in 1955 Ferragamo designed a see-through sole! We don’t quite get the point.
Entrance to this museum is €10, but we got in free through our hotel. We didn’t expect much, but we were surprised by the whole museum, particularly items such as this one – black shoes with heels that matched a dress!
He even designed a shoe with nautical themes!
The Crypt in Santa Trinita Church.
The Florence Duomo in early morning.
The edge of this random building features a stylized dragon with a “pokey” lantern above it.
The inside of this shop has a chandelier that overshadows its merchandise.
The Mercato San Lorenzo was very colorful.
This stall, Bambi, features tripe – but not necessarily a deer’s!
Hanging meats and cheeses. It looks very typically Italian.
Truth in advertising. While the US has 99-cent stores and dollar stores that now charge $1.25 or $1.50 for everything, this name means what it says.
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