Today was a very full day!  We started the morning off with a 3.5hr guided walk through Florence. We started with quick history of Piazza della Repubblica and the Medici family.  From here we wound our way down back streets to the Orsanmichele Church where our guide explained the differences in Medieval, Renaissance, and Mannerist architectural eras.

This is one of the things we learned about on the tour. When rich families had a large dinner or a party, they would have leftovers. At the end of the night, they would push the leftovers out through this hole in the wall. Ever eaten at one of those kind of places?

As we made our way to the Ponte Vecchio , we learned about the Queen that didn’t like riding past the butchers on this bridge (they smelled bad and were not pretty to look at) so she had an enclosed path built that lead from one palace, through already existing homes, over the meat market (that she eventually had changed to a gold and jewels market), through more homes, and eventually ending at the Pitti Palace (her country home).

This is the Queen's walkway from one palace to another as it crosses the Ponte Vecchio over the Arno River.

This tour eventually made its way inside the Santa Maria del Fiore (the Duomo) and ended with an education on how Brunelleschi designed and built the massive dome.

After the tour, Carson and I hurried over to the Uffizi Gallery to marvel at the works of Giotto, Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Botticelli.

Despite our feet begging us to stop, we proceeded to the Museo Galilei e Instituto di Storia della Scienza (Galileo Science Museum). Even with the really cool science tools and developing technologies, the best part was Galileo’s thumb, pointer finger, and middle finger in jars!

After all of this walking, we eventually made it back to the hotel for a few minutes of resting before heading out for dinner and an evening stroll through town.

Arrivederci!