More of Florence

Our second full day in Florence was our museum day, since they had all been closed on Monday. We bought the Florence card, which covered museum costs and allowed us to go to the front of the entrance line. That perk alone was worth the cost of the card. The lines for the Uffizi and the Academia were insanely long. Waiting with with Westin in either line, and in the heat, would not have  been an option.

We started with the Uffizi. Once inside, we set Westin up with a movie on the iPad and Ryan and I turned on another Rick Steves’ audio tour. The tour walked us through each room, pointing out select paintings and describing their significance. We were there about an hour and a half. It was funny to watch people glance at Westin watching his movie. I’m not sure if they were thinking we were brilliant parents for traveling with the iPad so we could get the most out of the sites, or if we were horrible parents for letting the iPad babysit our child and not giving him the cultural experience we were getting. I’m sure it was the latter, but whatever, I’m glad we brought the iPad. It really did make traveling and visiting all the sites so much easier (less stressful too).

At the top of the Uffizi, in front of Palazzo Vecchio

I'm guessing he was thinking about all the artwork we had just seen :)

After the Uffizi we walked back to L’Antico Noe for lunch, and then went to the Academia to see the David. I had been here before, but forgot how small the museum is. You’re really just going to see David and a few of Michelangelo’s unfinished sculptures. The David is amazing. And seeing the unfinished sculptures really helped give us a good idea of just how hard and time consuming the process is.

Following the Academia, Westin needed to get out and run around for a bit, so we walked around and found ourselves back at gelato. We then took a short break at the hotel and went back out to Pitti Palace where we walked through the Palatine Gallary and the palace apartments. The Palatine Gallary has a ton of famous artwork. I think it’s one of the biggest galleries in Florence. And walking through the living spaces of the palace was really cool.

San Lorenzo Market

Inside the Pitti Palace

A private passageway the Medici family built that went from the Pitti Palace to Palazzo Vecchio - Ryan and I thought it would be pretty cool to have one of these.

The second I saw this statue, I thought of Westin - no shirt, curls at the end of his thick hair, pretending the bag of sticks is some kind of riding toy... it's just something I could see Westin doing. 

A little worn out

A quick stretch

We finished around dinner time and decided to go off the tourist trail to find something to eat. We ended at a small, family-run restaurant (looked more like a dining hall) called Ristorante Sabatino in Oltrarno. It’s a good 15 minutes down the river from the Ponte Vecchi, so it’s definitely out of the typical tourist reach. The menu was an a la carte ordering style, inexpensive and quite good. I really enjoyed the setting of it too. It was nice to be away from the crowds for a while.

And just one cute picture from the hotel.

That finished up Florence, and the next morning we were off to Rome.