Today was a pretty relaxed day, just exploring Florence. We walked over the old bridge, Ponte Vecchio, with people actually living and running businesses on the bridge, which is kind of cool. It gave us a feeling of what London Bridge might have been like back in the medieval days. From there we went to the science museum, which on the plus side was free to get in, but on the down side was under renovation so heavily truncated. There was an interesting selection of telescopes showing the evolution of astronomical devices in Italy, but it was pretty forgettable really. We then wandered through the streets, taking in the sights and a few photos of places I recognised from studying at uni. We walked right past the Da Vinci museum, which had a very curt lady on reception but was partly interactive and I found it very enjoyable. Some of the things that Da Vinci pioneered are truly revolutionary – simple things like prototype chains, gears to transfer rotary motion in one plane to another (ie perpendicularly), the first flywheel, ball bearings, a few of the flying machines, a big 'tank' based on the image of a tortoise (a big wooden roof with cannons pointing out of it), and lots of interesting experiments on reflections (like a room of mirrors to allow you to see all sides of an object without moving), pulleys, etc. It was a little overpriced at €5, but I liked it.
One of the more impressive things we saw was the original Michaelangelo's David. We paid the entry basically to see this one thing, but weren't disappointed. The statue is huge, and there's something magical about it. Perhaps the detail of it, perhaps the size, perhaps the expression on his face, perhaps the big well-lit space it's in with nothing else around… whatever it is, it was cool. The rest of the museum was paintings and other, smaller, sculptures, but generally forgettable. From there we went to the flea market in the city centre, which was pretty cheap and very interesting, and I paid an excessive €3 to see the very unimpressive Medici Chapel (and that was a discount pretending to be a French student – they give EU students a discount but not other international students).
The remainder of the day was mainly taking photos of buildings, and making an incredible veggie bake and crepes. We are seriously excelling ourselves with the food we are creating, and loving it!
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