Florence (Day 6) - Academia, and more pizza

On the 6th day of our trip, we took a train from Vernazza to Firenze Santa Maria Novella. The train system is interesting. Based on the time we wanted to leave, it took about 3 trains and 3 hours including wait time. If you end up going at a different time it could take 2 trains and 2 1/2 hours, or even 4 hours.

If you buy a Firenze Card, it gets you access to all the major museums and the busier ones have priority lines. It's a bit pricey, but it does make it convenient in not having to buy tickets at each museum. The tourist information store is just across from the train station.

After a few minutes walk, we arrived at our hotel (yes, we finally got a real hotel for this one, all shiny and fancy) MGallery Hotel Cerretani Firenze. It's a nice hotel, pretty conveniently located, and our deal included free breakfast. It's nice having a smaller hotel with less rooms with friendly service and everyone greets you. I guess it has the feel of a boutique hotel?

The view from our hotel corner, with the Duomo not far away. As you can see, the buildings look much different architecturally from Rome and Cinque Terre, and obviously a very beautiful City. In fact, Florence was Sophy's favorite.

Some other Florentine streets nearby

We arrived with a little bit of time, so we headed over to the Academia. But before we got there, we stopped by this very inviting store, Scudieri Firenze.

The gelatines were pretty awesome.

Even though we had the Duomo planned for the next day, it's impossible to ignore the beautiful church.

Moving along...from the outside, the Academia probably looks the most nondescript of all the museums in Italy.

There's not too much to see in the Academia, but of course, it's home to Michelangelo's David, a Renaissance sculpture made between 1501 and 1504. This is different from other depictions of David during the time because others showed him standing victorious over Goliath or in mid-swing. Here, many interpret the sculpture to represent David before battle, and as Rick Steves said in my audio guide, it captured the precise moment when David is saying to himself, "I can take this guy."

I went to the Academia with the impression of, oh it's just a statue. But listening to commentary, and understanding the history and the interpretation of the sculpture made this one of the most interesting pieces in Florence, maybe in Italy altogether. 

An excerpt from Rick Steves Audio Guide, "David is a symbol of Renaissance optimism. He's no brute. He's a civilized, thinking individual who can grapple with and overcome problems. He needs no armor, only his God-given body and wits. Look at his right hand, with the raised veins and strong, relaxed fingers - many complained that it was too big and overdeveloped. But this is the hand of a man powered by the strength of God. No mere boy could lay the giant. But David, powered by God, could...and did."

So what's your interpretation? Was the statue representing David before or after he slayed Goliath?

Anyway, another well-known piece at the Academia is Giambologna's statue titled The Rape of the Sabines is based on the history of Roman men who would find wives from the neighboring Sabine families. This sculpture shows a man getting a last glimpse of his wife as she is taken by a Roman man.

They also have a Stradivarius violin...

From there, we grabbed some dinner at Pugi Pizza, just around the corner from the Academia. A little pricier than Rome, but once again, very good pizza.

For dessert, of course, gelato! We went to Gelateria Carabe which may have been one of my favorite gelaterias on the entire trip...Their pistachio was the best I had.

Btw, here's some fake gelato below. It's obviously more exaggerated than most. Most fake gelato is harder to tell, a little more disguised than this one haha.