Day 13: Travel to Florence & Montecatini

Italian style in Florence

Saying goodbye to Venice is always a little hard to do. It's especially hard when your route out of Venice takes you, by ferry, along the the main waterfront in the morning. The skies were especially clear this morning, allowing a fantastic view of the alps in the distance behind the city. There was no strike to slow our exit this time. We drove right onto the first ferry and slowly made our way out of the lagoon.

Brunelleschi's Dome

Four hours later, over the Apennines and through Bolongna, and we were in Florence, birthplace of the Renaissance and modern Europe. This one city, within the space of three centuries produced some of the greatest minds, artists, and writers of early modern European history; Petrarch, Giotto, Donatello, Brunelleschi, Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Machiavelli, Galileo. There are really too many to go on listing them here. Our purpose today was to go visit the most famous Renaissance figure still residing in Florence, the David. I really wish I could post pictures of David here, but photos are not allowed inside of the Academia. I guess it is all for the best. No photograph could do justice to this amazing piece of living marble. It has been scientifically proven that viewing the David in person causes women's pulses to rise. Michelangelo was a genius beyond measure. It has been said that he took one look at the huge block of marble that would one day become the David and immediately saw the potential locked in the stone. He believed that all he had to do was set the figure free from the stone. This attitude is very apparent when viewing his unfinished works known as the Prisoners in the gallery next door. These figure appear to be literally struggling to free themselves from the blocks of marble.

Our ride to Montecatini Alto

After a few hours of relaxing and dinner in our hotel in Montecatini, we jumped on the funicular around the corner from our hotel and took a ride to Montecatini Alto, the old medieval town high above the modern resort town. The funicular was built in 1898, but the old town is much older. In fact, we visited a 14th-century fortification located above the main square. The wind was, and still is, howling. It was absolutely spooky up there.

WW I Memorial in Montecatini Alto

Tomorrow, we head back for more time in Florence.

 

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