So with a 4th floor room you must hike up the last flight to get to the room. There is nothing at all wrong with the room per se, it's just the strange way the hotel is laid out. We both agreed on the hotel when making the arrangements, so we cannot blame the other for picking it. Overall, the hotels we booked were all good, especially the Hotel Campeillo in Venice, and they were centralized as we planned.
The first stop of the day after finding our way out of the hotel was the Del Duomo (aka Santa Maria del Fiore). It is typically shown in travel brochures as the symbol of Florence --- the dome is a distinctive organge/red red color as can be seen by the attached pictures. Moreover, the exterior walls have a pattern of grey and green stone consturction unlike other churches seen on the trip. Directly in front of the church is its equally well know Baptistry with its famous hugh bronze doors. Both the church and Baptistry are sparsely furnished with the center of each nearly devoid of the artifacts typically associated with the interior of a church. From within the interior of the current church (built during the 15th century) one can descend into a lower level to view the foundation of an earlier church over which the current Duomo was built.
The next stop was the Piazza della Signoria which was only a few blocks away. The Piazza was the heart of Florence's political and social life for centuries. Today the Piazza is a another tourist attraction and still contains some of the old government buildings, a large fountain and a host of statues. One of the statues is a replica of Michaelanglo's David, the original of which resides in the Galleria dell' Accademia in Florence. As with most tourists spots in Italy the Piazza is ringed with outside restaurants to cater to the tourist trade. Although there were lots of people in the streets, Florence did not have the wall-to-wall push of people that characterized Venice --- it just seemed to be much easier to navigate without getting crushed by masses of people.
Final stop of the day was the Galleria dell' Accademia (aka The Accademy of Fine Arts, or simply Accademia). This gallery complements and competes with the Uffizi Museum a few blocks away. It is most famiously known for housing Michaelangelo's original statue of David. It was originally commissioned by the city fathers to be placed in the Piazza della Signoria, however it was moved to the Accademia location in 1873 for safety reasons, and a replica was placed in the Piazza. Even at the Accademia facility it was not entirely unmolested, when in 1991 a deranged man with a hammer broke off one of David's toes. Created by Michaelangelo at the age of 29 the statue stands 13 feet high --- it was created from a single block of marble between the years 1501 and 1504. Visitors who come to see the statue can no longer get close enough to touch the work of art since a barrier now keeps the public a safe distance. While the statue of David is the prime attaction at the Accademia, there are numerous 16th century paintings of Michaelangelo's contemporaries on display. Michaelanglo grew up in Florence and lived into his 80's, but he was equally well known in Rome, particularly for his Pietà in St. Peter's, the dome of St. Peter's, and the Sistine Chapel. Finally, the Accademia has several rooms of 14th century of tempora paintings on wood which were typically used as altar pieces, as well as a large room of plaster castings of statues made in the 19th century by various accademy students. While it is not a large museum, it houses some of the most famous, important 16th century art.
