Thursday, October 20, we are on the road again!

We had an early start of 7:50 a.m. with cloudy skies but as we were driving north, the sun tried to peek out! We had some rush hour traffic but Sarah masterly handled it!

We easily made it into Florence within an hour thanks to Bryan's good directions and hand-drawn map. We found the paying parking garage with time to spare so we were able to walk through the open air market- I bought a banana for breakfast and Phoebe found persimmons! Sarah found a thimble that fits her finger! Here is a bin full of spools of thread:

 Then I found a place to get a crossiant - not chocolate but still delicious!

Then we walked past a library! We were on the way to the Academia but once we got a glimpse of the Duomo, we had to get closer:

 But time to move on as fortunately we had timed, reserved tickets for the Academia:

Our line wasn't this long & we were even allowed in before our time which was nice as it was starting to sprinkle! And here is majestic David by Michelangelo:

Still as awesome as it was the first time I saw him in 1971!!

Upon leaving the Academia, we walked to the Otto Botanic gardens - closed!! Along the way we passed through San Marco Plaza.

On the way back towards the Duomo, we stopped at a cafe for coffee, pastries, and a spinach bread item. Now fortified, we walked back to the Duomo. We opted not to go inside but to just savor the stupendous external architecture even though it was now heavily misting. Here are a few photos:

Okay, I give up! The blog has decided to do its own thing and it is late, I'm tired, etc. I will leave you tonight with this overview taken from the Piazza Michelangelo. We also walked across the Ponte Vecchio. And did I mention that tourism is alive and well in Florence?!