David… You have left me happy in Florence
Today started out not so well, and not as well as we had planned. We headed to the Boboli Gardens to check them out and found out it was not gardens, but rather a park with dead grass and no flowers. It was not a good sight to see and we didn’t even make it to the top. NO offense but I would advise those who are going to Florence to skip this part if you only have 2-3 days there. Anyways, Amy and I got hungry after all the steps, and boring sights, so we picked up a slice of pizza and gelato on the way to our reservations for the Uffizi Gallery.
only thing cool in the Boboli GardensI loved walking through this Gallery by the way. They had all the famous paintings you study in Art History class in person and much bigger than I had imagined. Plus I had my trusty iPod to help me along this gallery, I would advise those who do have one or any mp3 player, download Rick Steve's audio guides to Italy, it includes the Uffizi and Accademia and other such things. It was a great help, and cheap! Compared to buying the audio tour guides at the museum, you have one for free and more exciting facts I think. You can get these on iTunes as podcasts, or on his website ricksteves.com and download them from there. Saw, Botticelli, Titian, Michelangelo, Leonardo,Raphael, etc., All the big paintings you have seen in class, I saw in person. Astounding works of art. Then we made our way to the Accademia, which houses the famous “David.”
Ya that’s right… that’s my name on that street sign, ooh ya.. the David was located on this street too. It was meant to be. 
At first sight, you don’t really get a good feel for the setting by the building you are walking up to, but as soon as you step inside its modern doors and counters, your realize its something big coming. I headed to the right of the entrance first and was confused as to what I was seeing, but I put my earplugs in and listened to the guide that guided me towards the left of the entrance, straight down the long hall way to the one we have been waiting to see all day… David. Ok, pictures don’t do this guy justice, nothing would, you have to been in the room to feel how I felt or see what I saw when I first walked up to this statue. The pictures were an understatement. David stands at a whopping 17 feet plus probably another 5 feet above the ground on his stand. He is HUGE!!!! I can’t not believe what Michelangelo could do with his hands! He truly was the Renaissance Man. I could talk about how wonderful the David statue is, but I don’t want to waste all of your time, if you ever get the chance for a day trip, go to the ACCADEMIA!! With Reservations of course, its faster, and you don’t have to wait in the hot sun all day to ‘maybe’ get in. It was a beautiful, I would tell you to just sit there and look up at this work of art, and just admire it, take it in, all 360 views of David, and just see with your eyes. It truly was amazing and I’m glad I left Florence with seeing such beautiful work. P.S. as you are walking down the hallway, there are about 5 statues of unfinished work done by Michelangelo, its magnificent to see how he starts out all his work, and to think he left all that unfinished statues to go work on the Sistine Chapel! Magnificent is all I can say. Skip the other rooms and just go straight to the David, its worth the $15.I left Florence with a grin on my face and happy to have seen what I have seen today.Ciao!! Off to Rome in the morning!!! I have a very good feeling about this city. 