Friday, October 30

Today was our bike tour day through the streets of Florence. We went off with our guide and an Australian gal travelling by herself at the moment, a nice small group of us.

We visited:

Piazza Santa Croce where the Basilica of Santa Croce (Holy Cross) Cathedral stands, it is the burial place of some of the most illustrious Italians, such as Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, philosopher and politician Gentile and the composer Rossini, thus it is known also as the Temple of the Italian Glories.

Shelby with the Basilica of Santa Croce behind her.

Also the Florencian game of calcio storico takes place on the 3rd week of June every year in this Piazza. It was first played in the 1400s and today the teams are made up of 27 men from the 4 quarters of Florence. The men basically fight it out for the glory of their city quarter. Goals are scored by throwing the ball into the netting at the end of the field, defended by the opposition. Other than that, there are no particular rules, punching, kicking, tackling and head-butting opponents are all permitted, only kicks from behind or to the head and sucker punches are forbidden.

We also rode our bikes across a bridge parallel to the old Ponte Vecchio Bridge – “Old Bridge” in Italian – it is the most famous bridge in Florence and undoubtedly one of the city’s most notable landmarks. It is an incredibly breathtaking sight when seen from afar, and even more so when you walk across it, as we did later in the day, it is a road a marketplace and a piazza. It first appears to be documented in 996 but was destroyed by flood in 1117 and 1333 and then rebuilt in 1345.

Max pondering the Ponte Vecchio Bridge in Florence.

Then rode to the Basilica Santo Spirito where there is displayed a wooden cross sculpted by Michelangelo in 1493 when he was living in the priory and using the space to study anatomy.

The Piazza della Signoria is where the Palazzo Vecchio (“Old Palace”) is located, it is the town hall of the city. This massive, Romanesque crenellated fortress-palace is among the most impressive town halls of Tuscany. Overlooking the square with its copy of Michelangelo’s David statue as well the gallery of statues in the adjacent Loggia dei Lanzi, it is one of the most significant public places in Italy, and it hosts cultural points and museums.

After even more sights and a stop for gelato, we were done our bike tour and headed for lunch. Finished that off with some nutella crepes for dessert and some discussion with how to proceed with the remainder of the day.

Crepes for dessert with the Duomo in the background.

The boys decided that they needed a break back at the apartment so Shelby and I decided to head to the Galleria dell’Accademia to see Michelangelo’s sculpture of David.

Michelangelo’s statue of David at the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence.

The renaissance sculpture was created between 1501 and 1504 and stands 17 feet tall. The statue represents the biblical hero David. Originally commissioned as one of a series of statues of prophets to be positioned along the roofline of the east end of Florence Cathedral, the statue was placed instead in a public square, outside the Palazzo della Signoria, the seat of civic government in Florence, where it was unveiled on 8 September 1504. Because of the nature of the hero it represented, the statue soon came to symbolize the defense of civil liberties embodied in the Republic of Florence, an independent city-state threatened on all sides by more powerful rival states and by the hegemony of the Medici family.The eyes of David, with a warning glare, were turned towards Rome. The statue was moved to the Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence, in 1873, and later replaced at the original location by a replica.

We walked around the city after dinner taking in the sights and the Duomo one last time. Tomorrow we start our way back to France with an overnight stop in Genoa to break up the 5.5 hour drive.

The enormous size of the Duomo is apparent by the little people standing in from of it and the speck of a bike that is parked to the left of them near the building.