Medieval and Renaissance Florence and Pisa

The train journey from Rome to Florence took just over 90 mins, after we embarked from the train, we headed to the tourist info to get a map of the city. We then attempted to find the Uffizi Gallery located near to Palazzo Vecchio, and collected our tickets which we booked online for the gallery. There was a security check point and the required cloakroom. Once inside the gallery we ascended the stairs upto the second floor which the renaissance paintings and sculptures are housed. The gallery houses works such as Boticelli's Birth of Venus, Leonardo di Vinci, Michaelangelo amongst others. At the end of touring the gallery, the view on the terrace gave a glance of the Il Duomo and Palazzo Vecchio nearby.

After collecting our bags, we exited into the Piazza della Signoria where there are the Neptune fountain known as Fontana del Biancone and Equestrian Monument. From near here, we entered the Loggia dei Lanzi, a building on a corner of Piazza della Signoria adjoining the Uffizi Gallery. This building consists of wide arches open to the street and is a sculpture gallery of antique and Renaissance art. On the entrance to Palazzo Vecchio is a copy of Michaelangelo's David, the original is housed safely within the Galleria dell'Accademia. Like the Uffizi gallery, bags had to checked into the cloakroom for safety of the art. The ticket we bought was the museum and tower combi, and Liam again managed to get me a student ticket. Straight away entering the museum, you are bombarded with paintings by Leonardo di Vinci's Battle of Angliari and Michaelangelo's Battle of Cascina on the walls of the Salone dei Cinqueccento or Hall of the Five Hundred, works which neither were completed. Before we exited this room, there the statue of Michaelangelo's Genius of Victory and Vasari's Another particular highlight for us, was Dante Death Mask, located in a small hallway, as all mentioned in Dan Brown's Inferno. From the museum, we climbed the steps of the tower, which showed the nearby Il Duomo perfectly. At this stage of the day, we were both wrecked, so decided to get the train to Pisa, we just missed one, got the next available one, although tad longer than previous one, gave us the opportunity to sit back and relax. We only noticed half way through the journey, we were meant to have validated the ticket before boarding the train, little we could do about it now. Arriving into Pisa, we followed our mate Giulia directions to our hotel, which couldn't be any more precise. Receptionist was very helpful, with directions and helping us with the map the hotel provided. The hotel still has that old family feel within a modern setting. After unpacking, we went for pizza at a place called Dabbe followed by Gelato in Piazza Garibaldi in small place called La Bottega del gelato, both which were divine and suggested by Giulia. To finish the night off, we had a drink on the terrace of our hotel.

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Our earliest morning yet, was Tuesday at 6.15 am as we had to make our way to Florence by train, for our jam packed day, beginning at the Academy Gallery at 9.15am to view the Hall of Michaelangelo's work, of course in particular the statue of David. On leaving the gallery, we made the 5 mins walk to Florence's Cathedral, Il Duomo and were met with a long queue waiting for Brunelleschi's Dome. Niamh quickly joined it, while I hurried off to get the 10€ ticket for access to all the buildings. It took almost over an hour, before we even entered to begin the 464 steps climb to dome, viewing Vasari's Last Judgement beneath the dome closer on route. Once finally at the top of the dome, and on the platform on the outside, gave views of Florence, which was almost outdone latter in the day by views from the Giotto's Bell Tower, Boboli and Bardini Gardens. After our descend from the top, we rushed towards the Bargello Museum, as the information online said it closed at 18.00 not 12.50. This museum was a last minute addition to our initinery after hearing and reading about it since our arrival into the region. The museum houses other statues of David by Donatello and Verrochio, in the city of Florence there 4 such statues, 2 in this museum, 1 in the Academy Gallery and a replica of Michaelangelo's one outside the Palazzo Vecchio. After our visit here, we joined the que for the Bell Tower, which moved a lot quicker than one for the dome, we queued and reached the top within 45 mins, however it felt like the climb would never end. On reaching the street level again, we went to the Bapistry, admiring the east doors designed by Gilbertini? who Michaelangelo once described them as been fit to be the Gates to Paradise. After a quick visit the cathedral and it's crypt, we walked over the Ponte Vecchio and towards the Pitti Palace, where we got the ticket for the Boboli and Bardini Gardens which cost 10 euro. It took us about 3 hours to see only about half the Boboli gardens, but we made it to Porta Romana, the Buontalenti Grotto and the secret grey exit door from the Palazzo Vecchio, all of which are mentioned in the book Inferno. The view from both of these gardens are superb and in particular of the Duomo. We managed to make the 19.30 train back to Pisa, although it was a long and tiring day, was worth all the climbing of steps and hills. Once in Pisa, at this stage we were hungry and went to the first restaurant we met, which actually wasn't half bad. To finish the day, we had the required gelato from our favourite place.

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To finish off our visit to Pisa and Italy, we enjoyed last few sights such the church of Santa Maria Della Spina and church San Michele , another leaning tower within Pisa. During our trip in this city, we seen all 3 such leaning towers. Before getting the bus to the airport, we sat back and relaxed with our final gelato in Italy before our flight home back Dublin from Galieli International airport. It was only while queueing to board, I thought to check my mobile boarding pass and noticed we had priority queuing, although it had closed, we still were able to skip the long queue which was a relief.