Firenze - Mueso di Galileo, Galleria Uffizi

Today we took the train from Rufina to Firenze (Florence).

The train is nice and fast, not terribly confusing and pretty comfortable.  Definitely the right way to get into town.

Once we hit Firenze we wandered through the streets (Florence is not big but the streets are twisty and the buildings are tall) and made our way to the Duomo, and then to Piazza della Signoria, which is where the Uffizi Gallery is.  Our reservations were at 1:15 so we decided to take in the Galileo museum, then get lunch and hit the Uffizi gallery.

Piazza della Signoria

This Piazza is huge and quite pretty.

View from our lunch spot into the Piazza

Same shot, different focal point

Neptune

Pigeons scavenging the horses' oats

Neptune statue, detail

Museo di Galileo

A very fun little find, this museum is packed to the gills with artifacts used by Galileo himself as well as his contemporaries.  It's right around the corner from the Uffizi gallery.

Fitbit v1 (aka a pedometer)

A lovely carrying box of various instruments (labelled, see larger version)

Galileo's middle finger, bequeathed in perpetuity to the Church for imprisoning him for heresy ;-)

Galleria Uffizi

Uffizi is pretty much wall-to-wall gorgeous Renaissance art.  But don't take my word for it...

"Birth of Venus as seen through some other dude's camera."  I kinda wish I'd gotten everyone in the gallery to line up to take a photo of the next person taking a photo ad infinitum, but Shannon only lets me get away with so many shenanigans in public.

A rare statue of Michael Flatley in his pre-Lord of the Dance days.

DUDE.  Did you see that painting?  It is awesome!!!

Randoms from Firenze...

A smattering of fun shots just walking the city.

The Duomo of Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore

I never could find a spot to convey the size of the Cathedral.  It is startlingly massive.

Ponte Vecchio

Overlooking the river

Homeward bound

Erin took this picture of my reflection in the train window on the trip back.