A quick croissant, juice and coffee (sound familiar) before we head to see Michelangelo’s David at the Galleria dell’Accademia. As we waited in line we were approached by a number of tour companies promising us a speedy entry all predicted a hour and a half wait and great commentary. We decided we would tough it out and within an hour we were walking into yet another amazing galleria. The Galleria dell’Accademia is of course renowned for this gorgeous specimen…

however there is so much more to see here, in fact I commented to Steve that many of these pieces of art could almost seamlessly hang in our lounge room..with paintings by Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, del Sarto and Allori. It was just one more place to get lost in, and if you had time you could spend hours simply gazing at these wonders of the world.

We then meandered through the streets and came upon the Palazzo Medici Riccardi, a museum which is not open on a Wednesday which was a shame as it looked pretty tremendous from the outside … next time we are in Florence this will be one I will definitely put on my list to visit.

Then onto the Cappella Medice, which is this kind of hidden away so there was no queue and was like no chapel I had ever seen before in our view it was more a Basilica. Unfortunately I should have read up on the Medici’s before we arrived my given their importance in Firenze history but as the day progressed I learnt more and more and often heard them described as inspiring the beginning of the Italian Renaissance – not a bad way to be known.

It was certainly more ornate than any chapel I had seen, and of course there were lots of gorgeous pieces that have little pieces of bones in them…kind of unusual hmmm.

I should say by the way that Firenze (don’t I sound like a local ) is really easy to get around, and like Rome it’s a voyage of discovery where you never know what you will find around the next corner.

Next to the Palazzo Pitti (all photos courtesy of Pip – thank you 😊)for more glamour and glitz courtesy of the Medici’s. Fortunately for the world, Anna Maria Luisa de’Medici didn’t have an heir to the throne and so before her death (at age 75) arranged that all of the art collections and properties of her family be bequeathed to the city of Firenze, so as a result the legacy of this family is available for us all to see and look at these clothes 😀.

And then to our final tour in Firenze with a company called City Wonders, it was fantastic. The tour started at 7.30 pm and was called Florence’s Secrets, Signs and Symbols. It is a great tour, our guides name was Valentina and she gave us all of the “goss” on the comings and goings of Florence, providing information on the Medici family, as well as sad and sordid tales about foolish young men and the stories that changed the landscape of Firenze forever. It is another tour I would highly recommend and cost us 29 euro each on and included a gelato at the end of the night 😀.

What a wonderful way to finish our time in Firenze, so much we didn’t see this time, of course means that we have to come back again.. ciao.