Best Valentines Day EVER!

I couldn't have been more excited to be spending Valentines Day in Florence, Italy. The weather was a little chilly but the sun was out all day and it made for some great pictures and some fun sightseeing.
We walked all over the town today and found some beautiful statues and churches, as well as a couple of castles. We climbed to the top of a mountain to the the Plazza di Michelangelo and took beautiful pictures of all of Florence. There were a lot of steps but it was completely worth it once we made it to the top.

View from the window of the B&B

cute apartments

View from the window of the B&B

I love looking down these little streets . The pictures don't really capture the coolness that is Italian roads.

This is the square outside the Church. I can imagine that in the summer this is very full. We are so lucky to not have to deal with crowds of people :)

Statue of Dante

Statues above the door of the chapel

Perseus after killing Medusa

Mike and I by the River

I just thought this was a cool picture

The steps we had to climb to reach the Plazza di Michelangelo

Me excited to see the artwork.

The doors to the Duomo. They were giant and amazingly carved.

Statues

Me by the River

Panorama of he view of Florence

Clock tower

Perseus killing Medusa. Very cool statue 

The big bridge

The first copy of David we saw.

View of Florence from the top of the Plazza di Michelangelo. Beautiful

Me sticking a pose!

This was the church at the top of the mountain. Long steep climb, but worth every step.

This was at the very top of the mountain. There was a beautiful church and this was some of the graveyard just in front of it.

We walked some more then had a snack and a little rest. After charging our cameras and our bodies, we went out again to look for more things to do. We made our way to the Galleria Di Academia to see Michelangelo's David statue.  We had seen 2 different copies of it earlier in the day, but we really wanted to see the original. It did not disappoint. There were many other statues in the museum, some of which were also by Michelangelo. They were ones that he had started but abandoned for different reasons, without finishing them. Unfortunately, you aren't allowed to take pictures in the Muesum, so I wasn't able to take the kind of pictures I would have liked to, but I was a little naughty and snuck a couple of David and one other statue. Don't tell anyone! hehe

I love seeing these tiny little cars everywhere.

View as we walked to the Dome

Michelangelo's Pieta. This one was made when he was 89 years old. He made it for his own gravestone, but because of a flaw in the marble it broke before he could finish it. He abandoned it and it was finished by another artist and placed in a church. It was beautiful and one of my favorites so far.

Michelangelo's David

This was in the museum. You wet your hands a little and rub them on the handles, just like you do on the edge of a crystal glass. It makes music and you can see the sound in the water. 

Another really little car

The Baptistry

The Duomo at night

Statues on the Duomo

clock tower

You are supposed to rub the boars nose for good luck. Clearly it has been done a lot.

close up of some of the statues on the Duomo

Big bridge with the jewelry shops on it

View from the big bridge

Model statues made from plaster

I was Mikes blocker. I was hiding the camera from the security guards.

Things in Italy close fairly early so after seeing David we just wandered around and took some pretty fun pictures of the Duomo all lit up, and took a walk along the river and across the big bridge. The bridge has jewelry shops all the way across it. I really enjoyed walking around the town in the dark. Florence is beautiful at night!

Finally we ended the night with a fabulous Italian meal in the piazza del Republique.

What could be better then spending the day of Love in Florence? Not much really. What a lucky girl I am.