Day 10 - July 16, 2013 - Florence

Breakfast buffet at 7:15 and bus by 8:00 - Met our local tour guide (he was suppose to be the BEST in Florence) at the Academy of Fine Arts to see Michelangelo's DAVID - we were not allowed to take photo's here but I purchased a few postcards. Our tour guide explained every part of this sculpture - Michelangelo was commissioned by the Florentine government to do the sculpture and it took him 2 1/2 years (age 26-29) to do it in secret! DAVID was outside until 1973 when it was moved into the current gallery.

We walked through the city to see The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore - English: Basilica of Saint Mary of the Flower) is the main church of Florence, Italy. Il Duomo di Firenze, as it is ordinarily called, was begun in 1296 in the Gothic style to the design of Arnolfo di Cambio and completed structurally in 1436 with the dome engineered by Filippo Brunelleschi.

It was massive - could fit 17,000 people inside - the Florentine art was like I've never seen before - totally amazing and beautiful!

We went into a local Gold/Leather Factory (shoppe) to learn about 18K gold and real leather production here - BEST in the world and they are very proud of their work!!

Michael and I walked back to our hotel and ate lunch in our lobby bar~ pasta del pesto and a cheese tasting platter - delicious!! After that, I needed a nap!! I woke up 30 seconds before room service came to drop off all my clean laundry  and Michael thought that was funny!! This was the only day that I got a bad headache and I'm now thinking it could have been the blue cheese?

 The highlight of this day was DAVID for sure!! This the the only day that we actually rested and relaxed in our hotel for the evening.