Florence Day 3

We started day 3 in Florence with a good long sleep in. It was quite necessary after all the running around of the day before. Our efforts to make the most of the very comfortable bed were interrupted by a loudspeaker in the square outside our window. Apparently there was a fun run going on and our square was the meeting point and finish line. The guy on the microphone had the job of pumping everyone up before their run, so he was going at it with much enthusiasm and at a high volume.

We eventually got up and started to wander down towards the Ponte Vecchio, the oldest bridge across the Arno. We had no real plan for the day, except that we had to be at the Galleria dell'Academia by 2pm. The Ponte Vecchio was, as expected for all the major Florentine tourist attractions, quite busy, but that felt just right given the large amount of shops built up onto and over the sides of the bridge. Traditionally, and still, they have always been jewellery shops. We spent some time window shopping and eventually settled on a nice white gold pendant for Fiona in the shape of Florence's fleur-de-lis symbol.

We walked a little further down the bridge toward the Pitti Palace on the other side of the river. There we came across a shop selling another of Florence's traditional wares - painted ceramics. The dishes, plates, mugs and platters were all beautiful. We picked one out to hang on our wall and headed back towards the hotel to drop it off. On our way back we passed the Mercato Nuovo, a covered market that contains a statue of a boar. It is said that if you rub the nose of the boar and drop a coin in his fountain, you will be guaranteed to return to Florence one day. We ignored the pig and dropped some coin in the hands of one of the market's merchants, who happened to be selling the last remaining traditional Florentine commodity - leather. Our leather came in the form of a beautiful purple handbag for Fiona. Knowing her passion for handbags, I was well proud that she had managed to pass by so many other stalls, intent on getting the one she wanted, and haggling the merchant down 15 euros to boot!

After dropping the results of our retail therapy at the hotel we had to put on a brisk pace to get to the Galleria in time. When we arrived we found that there was absolutely no line, meaning our reserved tickets bought us nothing extra - but better safe than sorry. We breezed through the first couple of rooms, taking in a few Michelangelo's amongst the other mostly religious paintings. We took a detour into a room for medieval and renaissance instruments that was really cool. They had displays of many different and elaborate instruments and then a series of computers set up where you could hear them played. We particularly enjoyed the 'serpent' and the 'trumpet-marine', which sounds exactly like a group of trumpets but is actually a stringed instrument.

Further on in the museum were a series of unfinished sculptures by Michelangelo, showing arms and torsos emerging from large blocks of marble. It was unclear whether his intent was to leave them unfinished or if he had been called away to do something else, but it was neat to see how they seemed to develop from a shapeless mass. Standing at the end of the hall, in a perfect dome of light, was the main attraction - Michelangelo's David. Unlike the Venus de Milo, which we saw at the Louvre, there was no let down. It is truly and utterly breathtaking. We spent quite some time walking around and taking in all the angles. Every minute detail is perfect, including veins on the arms. A must-see for anyone in coming to Florence.

The next room was a particular highlight for us because it was the workroom of Lorenzo Bartolini. While it had very few finished marble sculptures, it had plaster casts of many of his great works, some of which we had seen and others which were new. There were also easily a hundred busts. If you haven't seen any of Bartolini's work, you have to go find some, he is a true genius. The way he depicts draped fabrics and faces is absolutely unreal. We saw some plaster casts that had more information on where the actual marbles were, and we found out that a nice series were in one of the smaller piazzas in Florence. We put it on the agenda for the next day. We also saw that one of our new favourites, a statue of two young ladies as dancers, was actually in Inverary Castle in Scotland, near Glasgow. Now we just have to find some way of convincing the Duke of Argyll to let us in to have a peak!

We left the museum and made our way back to the main square near the Duomo. We found a good patio spot for people watching and ordered some drinks. Fiona had a French mojito, which is like a regular mojito but substitutes champagne for the soda and adds fresh strawberries and strawberry pulp. She quite enjoyed them. It was nice to be able to while away the afternoon enjoying the sunshine, superb views and providing the odd commentary on the state of some tourists dress.

Post-patio we did a quick change and found another patio for dinner - another bottle of the fabulous Brunello and pizza. We had started with an Italian cheese plate that was really good as well. For us it rare to finish all of a cheese plate - there's usually a strange tasting blue or a really runny, mouldy tasting brie that gets left on the plate. On this day all the cheeses were gone.

Sitting on the same patio a few days earlier, looking back at our hotel, we had noticed the tops of some trees sticking out over the top floor. I noted that there was no way there were trees there that high, so there must be some type of rooftop patio. Fiona remembered seeing one on the web, so we went back to our friendly concierge and inquired. She pointed out a route to the patio and we spent the rest of the night up there, watching the sunset, completely alone on top of a hotel filled with hundreds of people. It was magical.