David Gawking, Dome Walking, and Market Shopping

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Morning, met Adam and Jen, and after breakfast we headed over to the Galleria Accademia to see the statue of David by Michelangelo. M’s unfinished statues were fascinating as well—many appeared contorted, tense, and writhing, and seemed to be slowly extracting themselves from the marble. If I looked away slightly, out of the corner of my eye, I thought I could see them twisting and slowly emerging… But really, the highlight of the gallery was David. Big hands, big feet, big head (no comments please, heh). I sat and stared for at least 10 minutes, and watched various tour groups float in, peer at the statue, listen to commentary from their guides, then float away. Oh yeah, there were other works of art there, too, musical instrument exhibition, yadda yadda, some plaster castings of other statues, blah blah, some paintings, yadda yadda… (Am I getting museumed out? Well, if you’d seen a half dozen museums in as many days, wouldn’t you?) No pictures, unfortunately. But we’ve all seen David anyway, right?

Next stop was the Dome of the Duomo. We’d intended (I think?) to head to the line up for the church, but passed by another entrance, which lead to the dome and had a non-existent lineup. Without hesitation, Adam steered us inside, and before I could protest my fear of heights… too late. We were in. *gulp*
Dome climb highlights:
- Lots of steps. Yeesh, a heck of a lotta steps.
- Dark corridors. Lots of steps in dark corridors.
- And spiral staircases too. Getting dizzy, and winded.
- More steps.
- Small windows cut into the walls, so we could peer outside and get fresh air. (breathe!)
- More steps.
- More spiral steps.
- Dodging a few down-climbers who’d gotten their fill.
- Legs aching. But no hip displacements thank goodness.
- A few more steps, then…
- At the top, bright light, and oh, the view.
- After shaking off the shakes (and not looking too far down—look to the horizon, look to the horizon! Don’t look down!), managed to snap a few photos.
- Adam took one of me gripping the railing, as proof I’d made it.
- Must admit, the view was breathtaking. Or maybe I was just winded from the long climb.

We then hunted down the sandwich shop we had passed yesterday afternoon during our walk—The Oil Shoppe—and we had lunch there. I had the proscuitto and tomato sandwich on wheat, which was very tasty.

The afternoon was free time. Adam was going to do some research, Jen was going to get her hair cut, and “Lisa is going to do whatever Lisa is going to do.” So we all split up and went our separate ways.

I went shopping. After a brief rest at the hotel, and a bit of writing, I headed out around 2pm to do some shopping and some wandering around. Bought a bunch of stuff for the family unit—but of course, now, I have a bunch more stuff to pack and lug around with me for the rest of my trip. Ah well, at least I wont be lugging it around too much (I hope).

I wonder if Florence turns everyone into a shopping fiend (or, in my case, more of a shopping fiend).

After shopping in the market, I wandered down to the Ponte Vecchio, with the intention of buying a gelato and standing in the sun on the bridge, taking in the view while eating my ice cream. Got a tiramisu cone. Perfetto; YUM. But it was brutal windy out, and I had to turn away from the wind a few times, to protect myself.

Then did a bit of walking around on the south side of the river—not much there at first blush (but I hadn’t really ventured out that far) except more shopping, so I turned around and came back over the bridge. Wandered around a bit more, and decided to head back home. Managed to find a couple of streets that looked familiar, and walked back in the general direction of my hotel. Took my time, and stepped into some shops along the way, as things caught my fancy.

Now it’s started to rain. And I don’t have an umbrella...