MICHELANGELO’S DAVID, THE DUOMO AND PONTE VECCHIO! (Tuesday, 8-31-2021)

 Ah, Florence!  My takeaway from our time in Florence back in 2013 was NAKED STATUES!  Seriously, that is all I remembered!  But Florence has so much more to offer!  Take, for instance, McDonald’s!  The Lange sister’s FINALLY got to enjoy their addictions — McDonald’s coffee for me and McDonald’s Diet Coke (it’s actually Coke Zero in Florence) for Patte!  We were both happy campers and ready to take on Florence!

Ooops, I forgot to mention, we had a near catastrophe at our condo this morning!  Here we are, straight out of bed, waiting for John to make us our coffee, when, lo and behold, the little coffee pot EXPLODED!  Scalding hot coffee and grinds spewed everywhere, luckily missing John who was standing pretty close to the stove!  We scrubbed the walls over and over and over and wiped up coffee grinds EVERYWHERE!  We all look a bit frightful here, but it was a memory!  Lesson learned: BEWARE THE EUROPEAN COFFEE MAKER!

Back to our day in Florence!  We purchased tickets to see Michelangelo’s “David” and had some time to browse through various shops.  This was a really cool one!  The artists travel around the world finding amazing rocks.

(Chloe, this one is for you!)

And then the artists (there are only 15 left) delicately cut the stones and creat phenomenal works of art!  They all look like paintings!  They were commissioned to create one commemorating September 11th, which you can kind of see below!  It was amazing!

And then it was time for our visit with David!  As Patte and Mike’s granddaughters, Claire and Kate would say, “Nuder Alert!” 

After seeing David, John and I got tickets to tour the Duomo.  We had an English speaking guide for just the two of us.  She was delightful and did a great job!  If you are interested in details, be sure to ask John!  Patte and Mike opted to have a light lunch and sit for a bit!

We met up after our tour ended and walked along the streets of Florence — that, in and of itself, was AMAZING!

It wasn’t long before we made it to our next “ must see when you are in Florence” — the Ponte Vecchio!

And then it was time for our much anticipated dinner at La Bistecca for Steak Florentine!  OH MY GOODNESS, it was ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS!  And, yes Jonathan, we thought of you while eating every ounce of that humongous steak!

A dinner out in Italy just wouldn’t be a dinner out in Italy without the complimentary LEMONCELLO!

We needed to walk after that HUGE DINNER!  We heard a beautiful voice singing and found this girl several streets over with the most amazing voice.  Darn, I really need to figure out why videos aren’t loading to Blogger!  (Tips, anyone?)

And then, down another street, we heard two guys jamming with their guitars!  We grabbed seats, sat down and listened!  We certainly enjoyed our day in Florence!  And I’m happy to report there is way more here than naked statues! 😁

CIAO FOR NOW!