Michelangelo, Galileo, Medici and More

Ok so this post is pretty long and in 5 parts.  

I'm trying to catch up since we're a whole city behind now!

Here goes!

MICHELANGELO'S PLAZA

Our host Ellie told us that one of the places we had to go in Florence was Michelangelo's plaza.  It's on a hill just off the river and has post-card worthy views of Florence.  She told us to take a bottle of wine and enjoy the sights, so that's just what we did.

Florence, Italy. Pretty sweet view right?

We picked up some yummy food at the grocery store before we headed up there, got half way there and realized we didn't have a corksrew to open the wine bottle, went back for one, and finally headed up the hill.

yes, I admit i drink  my wine from a huge Arizona cup

I have to say I loved the grocery stores in Florence.  Probably just because we were actually in Italy, but even the meat and cheeses from the deli section are so yummy, and you can get awesome food and wine right from there.

This is a total side note but we just had to add it in so the karma comes back to these people.  While we were sitting at the plaza enjoying our little picnic, a bride and groom came up and were taking wedding pictures!  It was fabulous.  All except for this little group of people thoughtlessly standing in the way of the best photo ops.  Seriously, she's wearing a wedding dress, you can't move for a couple minutes?  They just stood there and took their sweet time talking and made the bride wait for them.  We couldn't believe it.  Come on people, it's their wedding day.  Move yourself out of their pictures.  Ok end of rant.















Being Michelangelo Plaza, it does have a tribute to him with this bronze David Replica.  This is probably my favorite one from around the city, and there are numerous replicas around Florence.

Florence is also famous for Pinnochio, the author lived very close by, so this little guy is also up at MP (as well as key chain sized ones in every tourist shop).  Michelangelo's Plaza had some of the best views of Florence, so thanks to our apartment host for the tip!

GALILEO MUSEUM

When Erin heard there was a museum dedicated to Galileo in Florence, we decided to go even though it wasn't part of our museum pass.  It was definitely worth it though because they had some really awesome things there including a model of the Universe with the Earth at its center that took up a whole room, some of Galileo's original telescopes, really old maps of the world featuring former empire outlines, and it was a nice break from all the art museums.

Outside the museum they had an astrological exhibit that showed the various signs on the ground, along with their corresponding months, positioned around a sculpture in the middle.

The Armillary Sphere - showing the Ptolemaic model of the universe with the Earth at it's center - it was huge and had paintings on the wooden rings when you looked inside, it was awesome. 

This is one of the various machines they had that were used to demonstrate scientific principles to the public.  This room was filled with different machines, all with video representations of what they were demonstrating that were really interesting to watch.  The machine to the left was about balance and motion and the disc actually rolled up the incline on it's own because of its center of gravity.

The two telescopes that Erin is standing in front of on the right are some of Galileo's original telescopes that he designed and used himself.

Statue of Galileo Galilei in front of his telescopes. 

They also had a creepier display at the museum showcasing two of Galileo's fingers and one of his molars.  Yes, actual body parts.  It was definitely causing a lot of, very funny to watch, double takes as people came by, read the plaques, and realized what they were looking at, including two from us.

MEDICI VILLA

Another place we were able to go see with our museum passes were the Medici villas on the outskirts of Florence.  We had to take a bus and then walk a mile or two to reach them, but as most of the other sites we visited were in the tourist center of Florence it was nice to get out in the much less crowded 'suburban' part of Florence.  

The villa we ended up visiting was Villa Petraia which was really beautiful, surrounded by gardens and since it was on the top of a hill, had great views of Florence as well.

The only way to see the inside of the villas is on a guided tour though, so when we arrived we waited for the next tour, taking about a hundred pictures of the gardens while we were waiting.  When the tour started though we found out that it was only given in Italian.  We did't mind that so much, but our tour guide asked the other two people on our tour if they spoke English, and we ended up getting the whole tour translated to us by one of our fellow tourists.  Mind you the tour lasts for like an hour.  Obviously by the end of the tour I think she was second guessing her decision to speak up, even though we kept assuring her it wasn't necessary she keep it up.  But we did learn a lot thanks to her, and so wherever you are, Thank You soo much!!!  

The inside of the villa was quite impressive, including lavishly decorated rooms, a huge container for olive oil (our tour guide told us, "big family, lots of oil"), and a game room that had extra long pool tables and instructions for playing games in French which was the international language then.  Sorry we don't have any pictures from the inside, but we weren't allowed to take any, which is unfortunate because the courtyard inside was pretty amazing to see with murals of Italian history covering all the walls and ceilings.

The BARGELLO MUSEUM

We went to this one not really knowing what to expect but because it was part of our museum pass.  We were really glad we did though because it featured some of the cooler sculptures that we saw overall including the original and much smaller model for Celleni's statue of Perseus holding Medusa's head, an armory room with a ton of really old guns, old protective armor pieces and swords, and a collections of Persian artifacts.

All of the pictures we took were from the outdoor courtyard area though, as pictures weren't allowed on the inside, so you'll just have to trust me that it has some really cool stuff inside, including the rooms themselves.
Obviously though, this owl was clearly the center of my attention and my favorite thing in the whole place! hootyhoot

Our Last Days in Florence

Random Anecdote:  We only took two converters with us, assuming we could find more when we got there.  That was a bad assumption, so we'd been looking for some ever since we got to Croatia.  Well we found this shop pretty much the last week we were in Florence, we stopped because of all the awesome light fixtures, but it turns out they had converters!  Anyways, most of them had three prongs (the norm for Italy, the third one is a grounder, but you only need the two and other outlets in Europe only have two) so when we asked about getting some with just two the guy in the shop said he could work it out and preceded to try and saw the middle prong off.  When that didn't work (which I'm kind of glad didn't work) he got out some pliers and just pulled out the middle prongs and Voila! We got new converters!   

Here are some pictures taken wandering around Florence during our last few days there:

                                 Florence themed Chess Set      

Dolphin shaped door handel,
they do have a lot of weird looking dolphins in Italy

                                                
Gelato at Pitti Palace, green gelato for St. Patrick's Day and our favorite gelato, from Gelateria De Niro!




There is this boar statue near Piazza Reppublica, and everyone rubs its snout and drops coins into the fountain by placing them in its mouth and letting them fall out.  Not sure why people do this, but we played tourist and did it too!

         

          

Relaxing and eating lunch on Piazza Pitti, and eating dinner at Cafe Bellini, a really great little restaurant right on the piazza where the waiter tried to teach us some Italian. Although we're not completely sure what he ended up getting us to say, we hope it really was just "can I have the check please"

Our last walk home - we decided to snap a reflection pic in the street mirror.  And there it is!  Goodbye Via del Campuccio 7 and your sweet seahorse doorhandle!

And one last visit to the old bridge before we left.
Arrivederci Florence, we had an absolutely wonderful time!

Ciao!  Now on to Rome to do as the Romans do!  

ps as a last note on Florence, here's a video of a song I came across on Italian tv and just love!