Day of Michelangelo

July 09, 2014

Day of Michelangelo

"Happy hump day! It's been a good one here in Italy. Beautiful weather, no rain where we were, and pretty views. But, we had to start out with a healthy breakfast at the Ok, Bar before getting going.

Mom had already seen the Accademia, so she decided to opt out of our morning activity. Dad, Nick, and I went to the Accademia. We got to see one of the most famous sculptures in the world without waiting in a long line (thanks for the reservation, mom!). Michelangelo's David was incredibly detailed and chiseled to perfection. It was most definitely a cool experience and I am glad I did it.

Next, we met mom at the hotel before going to the Mercato Centrale. We explored the market for a while and found some interesting things along the way. We saw some stuff that we wouldn't have expected, such as brains, lungs, and various body parts of animals.. Quite interesting. We found an assortment of foods for lunch and even found the cutest bag. See below:

After we felt we had a good assortment of stuff to enjoy, we went to the nearby Medici Chapels and walked around those. There was a noticeable difference between Il Duomo yesterday and today's chapel as far as decorations go. And, today's post is called Day of Michelangelo because we also saw some more Michelangelo sculptures. Mom took some good pictures of all of it.

We enjoyed our picnic at our hotel once we returned. It was delicious, and the strawberries we had were amazing. We enjoyed peaches, nectarines, strawberries, apricots, plums, provolone cheese, prosciutto, salami, focaccia bread, Nutella/chocolate muffin, and hazelnut treats.

And, we explored two Tuscan towns: San Giminano and Volterra. In San Giminano, we walked around the streets and climbed one of the fourteen (out of 72) remaining towers. The views were gorgeous from the top and the weather was pretty perfect. These are some of our pictures from San Giminano:

Before we left for Volterra, we enjoyed a caprese salad and prosciutto melon plate and got some souvenirs. Mom and I both got magnets from Tuscany. Nick also bought a painting for his room while here of Florence. Mom bought an oil on canvas for our home also.

And, we headed out for Volterra. The roads were twisty and the town is on the hill. For anybody that doesn't know, Volterra is famous for being supernatural and is even featured as the setting of one of the Twilight books. Anyway, we walked through the town and ate our dinner there. I took a nice break from straight up pasta with Pasta e Fagioli soup while the rest of the family ate noodles. Here are some pictures from Volterra;