We woke up bright & early ready to tackle Florence. After our many adventures the night before, we were excited to see the city in the daylight.
We had a 3 hour "kid friendly" tour of Florence & it was perfect for our family full of kids.
We started out going to see the famous statue of David. We also enjoyed the many other paintings & sculptures inside the museum.
These paintings were gorgeous. These were done by Michelangelo's teacher. The colors were vibrant & beautiful & the paintings were so dimensional.
This sculpture is pretty amazing too. No matter where you stand in the room, the sculpture looks different. I love that you have to completely circle the sculpture to fully enjoy it.
And of course, David did not disappoint. He was INCREDIBLE. I didn't realize how tall he was. And the detail in the sculpture was insanely wonderful. I loved the veins in his hands & the muscles in his shoulders. I can't believe this was carved out of stone.
Bladen was cracking me up with leaves.
After seeing David, we went for a walk around the Florence City Center to explore the sights. Our tour guide was great at telling us history, but also making it fun for the kids.
The Florence baptistry & cathedral was one of the most beautiful buildings I've ever seen. The colored marble was gorgeous.
Look at how intricate these carvings are . . . mixed with the colored marble.
After exploring the cathedral & baptistry, our tour guide took us to an adorable paper store where the shop owner demonstrated how to marble paper. The kids LOVED it. They each got to pick a color of paint to add to the marbling. Their finished product was beautiful.
This is the full size marble statue that was carved from the clay model we saw in the David museum.
After looking at a few more sites around Florence, our tour guide gave each of the kids Pinocchio pencils & then bought them tickets to ride the carousel.
We ended our tour with a trip to our tour guide's favorite gelato shop. I had stracciatella & it was amazing.
After our tour we split up for lunch. Opa, Oma, Tuhk, & Tylee's family went to enjoy authentic Florentine steak. They said it was amazing.
Carolyn & her kiddos & my family went to the Hard Rock Cafe & enjoyed some music & good food. The kids had the best mac & cheese of their lives. (everything is better in Italy).
After lunch we made our way to our meeting point for our pizza & gelato tour. While we were walking, we saw the oldest bridge in Florence. There are actual houses on the bridge that people still live in. It was incredible.
We walked along the river to our pick up point for our pizza & gelato tour & loved every minute of our walk.
There was a beautiful church where we waited for our next tour guide.
The rest of the family met back up with us & we walked to the bus. We were SUPER excited for our next tour.
Stay tuned for our pizza & gelato adventure.
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