Florence's art scene

Today, we got up early, had breakfast in the hotel, and returned the car. Whew! (I guess one of the good things about the car, which I forgot until now, was that we were able to listen to Italian radio. Stations did play quite a bit of music in English with a very popular song called "Relax, Take It Easy"). When we got directions to the rental dropoff from our hotel, they told us to stop by and give the license plate number to them. Apparently, Florence has sections where the roads are restricted from heavy traffic and if you are not going to some place you can get a fine. That just adds all the more reason to ditch the car. We walked from the rental place to the Uffizi Gallery along the Arno River and passed the Ponte Vecchio. We were a little early (we had reservations which helped us get out of a long line). So, we took a few photos and read up a little on the gallery. Inside the gallery, we had to go through metal detectors and check our bag (baggage check had a sign that said it was forbidden to leave cameras, phone cameras, money, or identification documents, which was an odd sign because that's what our bag had mostly in it). After climbing two tall stories of stairs, we saw many statues and busts of famous people like old roman emperors. We saw lots of early and mid renaissance paintings including the famous Boticelli birth of venus. After the gallery, we had lunch at a nice self serve sandwich shop. We decided to get a little rest before visiting the Academia and started walking back to the hotel. Along the way Jadine wanted to stop at the local department store called Coin (it's like Macys). When we got back to the hotel, Jadine took a nap and I went downstairs to the lounge where they have wi-fi and connected to the internet. At about 3:20, we headed for the Academia. After going through another metal detector, we entered the gallery. We saw some more art, but the reason everyone comes here is to see Michelangelo's David which was worth seeing in person. After the gallery, we headed back to the hotel and got ready for dinner. We thought we'd try a Rick Steves recommendation. However, we could not find either one and ended up at a nice restaurant called Trattoria Corrazze. We ordered roast beef, a florentine style t-bone, a glass of brunello, and a panna cotta with caramel and pistachio for dessert. The brunello was not so good (my theory is because we're tourists and we're buying by the glass so we get the not so fresh stuff), but the food was excellent. That was it for the day. It was a little refreshing not to have so much on the schedule.