After our best nights sleep since we have been in Italy, we walked five blocks to meet up with the group of 14 that made up our three hour Walking Tour. We lucked out by having Laura as our guide.

The best part these tours is skipping the line, that can be hours long. We started of at the Galleria dell Academia which houses Medieval and Renaissance art, most notably Michelangelo’s David.

Our guide explained that this is the moment just prior to his confrontation with Goliath. If you look up from the obvious, you can see the pensive expression on his face as he contemplates the task before him, while holding the rock in one hand and the sling in the other.

We moved on to the Duomo for another skip the line tour. Most notable is the first self supporting dome of its type when built around 1300.

I will not bore you with all of the details, but it was time well spent. On leaving, our guide took us through the less crowded Old Town to the river and the first bridge built across the river, and the only one too survive WWII.

So after lunch and a well earned treat we return to our room.

Unfortunately the rain increased to the point we settled for a simple dinner in our room.

So with the unscheduled downtime I decided to post to the blog. We were so pleased with the way this tour went we scheduled another to the Uffizi Museum which is said to house the best collection of Renaissance paintings in the world. Looking forward to another day in Florence.