We were lucky to get reservations for the Uffizi gallery so after walking through various old areas of Florence, we went to wait our turn to get in. Talked awhile to a man outside who paints and sells watercolors of Florence and ended up buying three small pictures. Looked at all the outside statues first…including a living one.
Living statue
No photos allowed in the Uffizi, except in the halls. And most of those are on my “real” camera.


We ate lunch upstairs – 4th floor with great views of the towers and churches of Florence.



But before doing that we saw a stairway that went down below the main church so we went to look, thinking it might be a crypt. We learned that below the structure of the current cathedral there was the excavation of Saint Reparata church, from 3rd century and remodeled and added onto before the newer Duomo was started in the 1200’s. Also visible is parts of a roman structure predating St Reparata – just incredible to see! Part of the old mosaic floor is still there!
So after leaving that I had just enough energy for part of the Duomo museum and at least 80% of the reason was to see Michelangelo’s unfinished Pieta. He sculpted this when he was 80 yrs old and almost destroyed it when he became angry about a defect in the marble. His helpers/students stopped him after damage was done to just one arm. He never did finish it but Nicodemus the man helping to hold Jesus is a self-portrait. It is beautiful.



Now I am resting my poor legs before taking our nephew out to dinner. Note- walking the dog twice a day for a mile or two did NOT prepare me enough for all the walking and climbing. We are hoping all the walking will make up for all the eating!! But for sure flat Venice will be a treat!
Seven days have already gone by – but sixteen to go still 🙂 Kevin, Judy and Megan – can’t wait to see you!
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