Welcome to Florence!!!!

Florence was by far our most favorite city to visit. Amazing town center once owned by the very powerful Medici family. The Medici was a political dynasty, banking family and later royal house that first began to gather prominence  during the late 14th century. The Medici even produced four Popes of the Catholic Church—Pope Leo X ,  Pope Clement VII, Pope Pius IV, and Pope Leo XI . Their wealth and influence initially derived from the textile trade guided by the guild of the Arte della Lana. Like other majorly powerful families they dominated their city's government, they were able to bring Florence under their family's power, allowing for an environment where art and humanism could flourish. They fostered and inspired the birth of the Italian Renaissance along with other families of Italy.
The MINUTE you walk into the town center, which houses their offices during this time period, you can see and experience the power and influence they had. Their offices/ apartments were beautiful and not create the town center of Florence. They placed a sculpture garden outside their homes that truly was marvelous and jaw-dropping.

These sculpture were breath-taking...the details, the emotion all carved into the marble or bronze. AMAZING and all placed under a Gothic structure.

You will also find the one of two replicas of Michelangelo's David sculpture. So POWERFUL to see it up close. Because of the nature of the hero that it represented, it soon came to symbolize the defense of civil liberties embodied in the Florentine Republic, an independent city-state threatened on all sides by more powerful rival states and by the Medici family. The eyes of David, with a warning glare, were turned towards Rome. The statue was moved to the Academia Gallery in Florence in 1873, and later replaced at the original location by a replica. And here is that replica!!!

Michelangleo was known for being the master of the human form, both in sculpture and in painting. We were able to experience both of this on our tour. Yet did not get to tour the Uffici or the Academie Gallery...but on our NEXT TRIP... We HAVE to tour these museums!!!