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It was early away from Como as most of the town still slumbered. We hit the tollway and ate up the k's doing 130. It wasn't until about 11am that the fog started to lift and the blue skies started to show. We arrived in Florence shortly after. We went straight to our hotel which is out of the city centre. We parked the car and planned on letting them know we were here then catching a bus into the centre. I'm a little over driving in these old cities. Well I'm a little over driving anywhere at the moment. We were too early for check in by a few hours but the hotel gave us one of the rooms already cleaned. Kudos to them. So we then bused it in to the city centre to experience the beauty of Florence. With map in hand we went exploring the streets and came to our first stop which was the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Flore. Built in the 1300's it has a unique look owing to the exterior being constructed from pink, green & white marble. Once again we were in the presence of another spectacular cathedral. We only passed by it at this stage as we wanted to try and make it to the Galleria dell' Academia, which holds important paintings and sculptures from the 13th-16th centuries. We weren't sure if we'd get in as the lines are very long. And so it was when we turned up that we would have to wait an hour to get in. For double the price though we could get in straight away. As we were short on time we decided to go for it. So in we went and shortly after we got to see what we had come for. Probably the most famous sculpture in the world, Michelangelo's David. Or as we'd know him in Australia, Davo. I was expecting a life-size sculpture but it is in fact about 20 feet tall. It is an amazing piece of art and we spent a good 30 mins marveling at the nakedness in front of us. Now I'm not a big art fan but this is just so amazing that you can't help but appreciate it. You can't take photos inside the museum but I managed to sneak this one in. There's always someone who breaks the rules hey? We moved on and saw a bunch more old stuff before returning to the street super happy that we have seen yet another amazing piece from the history of mankind. We then made our way back to the cathedral for a wander through. Definately more impressed from the outside. We then headed down to wander along the banks of the river to get to our next destination, the Ponte Vecchio. It was the first bridge built to cross the Arno River and the only one to survive WW2. We wandered across as Jac looked at all the jewelry shops on the bridge. I tried to act interested but she didn't really buy it. Then it was on to Piazza Della Signoria which is basically a free open-air exhibit and holds copies of lots of famous sculptures. By this time it was getting pretty late so we had an unmemorable feed and then paid them lots of money for the privelidge of eating crap food. Leaving angry we consoled ourselves with Gelati and had a look at one of the oldest buildings in Florence, the Baptistery. Then it was back to the bus and the short trip home. A Renaissance city in the heart of Tuscany, very beautiful and full of history. To think we were treading the same streets of some of histories greatest artists is pretty mind blowing.
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