Italy Trip Day 5 - Florence

The day that Nicole had been dreading all trip has finally arrived. I really wanted to at least visit Florence for a day, primarily to see some of the famous art museums, and in particular, see Michelangelo’s David sculpture. Of course, that kind of day is not exactly easy with a two-year old, so Nicole was not super-thrilled with the idea, but she went along like the trooper that she is. In order to get into Accademia (the museum housing David) without waiting in line for hours, you need to make a reservation in advance. I had taken care of this detail weeks before our trip, and we had a reservation time of 11:30, which I thought gave us plenty of time to make it to Florence, park and get to the museum. This of course assumes that you get out of bed on time, get Mason dressed and fed quickly, and don’t forget anything important (like reservation number or your Italy guidebook). Unfortunately, we did not accomplish any of those things, and as a result we were scrambling to get into Florence, park and then search desperately for a cab to take us to the museum. We did finally make it to Accademia (literally at 11:30), only to stand in line (with the other people with "reservations") for another 30 minutes enjoying the work of art that Mason must have created in his pants during the cab ride. Once we got in, however, we quickly found that David was worth all the hassle.
Unlike the Mona Lisa, which tends to be a little underwhelming when you first see it, David is completely awe-inspiring in our opinion. Even Mason seemed to be impressed, not taking his eyes off the statue for the whole 10 minutes we stood looking at it. Taking in Michelangelo’s nude masterpiece, Mason was inspired to exclaim, “Mama, Daddy, he goes pee-pee in the potty!” Hopefully this visit inspires Mason to do the same sometime soon.
I hadn’t broken the news to Nicole yet, but I had also made a reservation in the late afternoon for the Uffizi Museum, which is supposed to house the greatest collection of Italian paintings anywhere. Needless to say, when I did break the news to Nicole, she let me know that we would be breaking the reservation and heading back to the farmhouse before Mason completely melted down into a total wreck. Oh well, nothing ventured, nothing gained, I guess. However, before we left, we sampled some of the famous Florentine gelato, which also proved to be worth the hype.