it means "rebirth"_

sunday morning (apr 24) we rolled out of castiglion fiorentino headed for florence. first thing we did was get in line for the accademia to see the david. it was well worth the 45 min wait and the 8 euro cover charge. it is so perfect, it made me weak in the knees. after that we went a block over to see the founding hospital by brunelleschi. it hasnt been preserved as well as it should have been, being that it is the first renaissance building ever. kinda worth keeping nice, in my book. moving on, we also saw palazzo pitti (from the outside), palazzo vecchio (from the outside), and the uffizi gallery (very unfortunately, only from the outside). that evening, as well as the next, we watched the sunset over the city, with a bottle of wine, at piazza michelangelo (below). on the way back to our hostel i snapped a photo of the ponte vecchio at night (above). for those of you who don't know, it is a bridge that the powerful medeci family used to build their own private escape route over the river from their palazzo, in case shit started to hit the fan. also, at one point the bridge was used as a busy market street for butchers and the like, but the medeci's didn't like that so much, so they gave those filthy peasants the boot, and replaced their shops with nice jewelry stores, which still dominate the bridge today. the next morning we went up to the top of the dome of santa maria del fiore, which was for many years, unrivaled in size anywhere in europe (above). we also saw santa croce, which houses the tomb of michelangelo himself. also, off of the church's courtyard is the famous pazzi chapel, another of brunelleschi's creations. that afternoon i went to see santa maria novella which made a beautiful renaissance backdrop to the busy open space in front of it (below). this is a beautiful city with too much to see in 2 days, but if you are in italy, it is a must see.