7/29 -- Florence

Up early for 8:15 tickets to Accademia, which houses Michaelangelo’s David and a cool musical instrument museum (and other cool stuff too).  Then we had a 10 am bike tour of Florence.  It was so, so fun and I was reminded how much I like exploring cities on bike.  I thought there would be helmets (there weren’t) so I had to get over that.  (I’m very much a “wear a helmet whenever you’re on something with wheels” person.  But literally no one biking around the city — and there are lots — was wearing one, and I guess when in Rome. . . Or, you know, Florence.

After the bike tour we came back to our apartment for a rest, and then off to a pizza and gelato making class.  It was very fun and tasty.  We (by which I mean Jourdan) make pizza not infrequently at home (even have a pizza oven barbecue thing) and Jourdan makes his own crust — but what we made in this class was better and he got some good tips (and a recipe) to improve at home.  And the (chocolate) gelato was delicioso.  I’m not as confident we can recreate that at home, but we will probably try.

On the way home we stopped at the Mercato Centrale (Central Market).  If you’d asked me this morning whether I needed a Tuscan leather purse, I would have unequivocally said no.  But it turns out I’d have been wrong, I actually needed two.  Plus we “needed” some other leather goods and picked up a few other souvenirs as well.  Jourdan and I aren’t the best hagglers and definitely got taken advantage of at at least one booth, but at the end of the day it’s all fine.  Before we were done, Julia told me more than once it was time to quit spending money for the day.

We then walked along the Arno River and took pictures in front of the Pointe Vecchio bridge, which legend has it was the only bridge not destroyed in WWII by express order by Hitler (although our tour guide told us this was only one possible theory for why it wasn't destroyed).  

One other note from the day, Owen discovered that “butt sweat”, which he had all day, is uncomfortable.



Michaelangelo's David





Bike tour





















Pizza and gelato making class graduates!


Russell's favorite myth is of Perseus killing Medusa, so he was very excited to see this sculpture.  (And our tour guide was impressed that he knew immediately who was being depicted.)





Pointe Vecchio Bridge










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