Florence

Gelato is a very serious business in Florence. Grom is a very serious ice creamery.

One must have Nutella gelato when in Florence. It's a rule.

Florence and the Duomo by the light of a full moon.

The Duomo's facade by night.

The next day, we headed to the Galleria dell'Accademia. Strolling the city's winding streets, we noticed the amazing art just hanging out on exterior walls. Everyone is so used to it, no one seems to notice.

There is one big attraction at Galleria dell'Accademia: Michelangelo's David.

Inside the Galleria, he looks enormous.

The only other interesting part of Galleria dell'Accademia was a sculpture restoration exhibit.

The Joneses and David!

We next visited the Bargello, Florence's sculpture museum. The entire block was roped off, so finding the makeshift front door was difficult- hence, we were the only people in the museum.

The cool lion sculptures that flanked the museum entrance.

The Bargello was several floors and a mezzanine, surrounding this interior courtyard and its scultpures.

Sculptures in the courtyard.

One of the Bargello's most famous pieces- Giovanni Bologna's Mercury.

The Bargello was a prison once- this sculpture hall is what was once the dungeon.

The main sculpture hall.

More fun with statues...

One of my favorite pieces- part of a fountain that once stood in Florence.

So the Bargello is a very old Renaissance building. They don't have screens on the windows, so you can literally just hang out the upper floor windows. And we soon discovered why the museum's block was roped off- they were filming a movie.

This is the filming of Dan Brown's "The Inferno." We hung out the windows and watched for a while.

The next place we visited was the Church of Santa Croce.

So how huge is Dante in Florence? As Florence's favorite son, he is both literally and figuratively HUGE.

The Joneses at Ponte Vecchio!

Ponte Vecchio- once a butcher shop and meat sewer, now a tourist trap :)

We next visited Palazzo Pitti, the former home of the Medicis, now a museum.

The Medicis were rich, powerful, and liked a good opulent ballroom. This is The White Room.

Just an everyday sitting room for the Medicis.

The opulence of this place is over-the-top. They were essentially royalty.

Much of the Palazzo is as it was in the Medicis' day- just rooms and rooms of art, which they collected and curated (and eventually donated to the city of Florence).

The Palazzo Pitti had an interesting ballroom gown exhibit. I would rock this dress.