Now that you’ve heard about the journey, let’s talk destination.

Lindsay has friends with an amazing guest house in Florence, just in the shadows of the famous Duomo (Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore). The Duomo might be one of the most magnificent structures I’ve ever seen. When Jeff and I visited in 2010, we spent hours just circling it at night, vino in hands, constantly awestruck.

Duomo and tower.

The Florence Duomo.

The door of the Bapistry immediately next to the Duomo. Depicts scenes from the Bible.

Clock inside Duomo -- tells time by hours until sunset.

The inside of the Duomo is actually quite plain (yet incredibly beautiful), except this magnificent ceiling, which has been created on the inside of the dome, itself.

Terese, our hip hostess with the mostest, took us to numerous sites on Friday — the day we arrived. One of our first stops was “the David” and other key attractions at the Academia Gallery. We happened to run into a professional tour guide and personal friend of our hosts. Using his language skills, he got us into the museum quickly (Terese’s pass helped too) and spent at least an hour providing an in-depth art history lesson.

(An aside: Tour guides in Italy are unionized and licensed, and there are heavy fines for performing this job without the right papers. Police will actually stop and ticket. Crazy!)

Some tidbits about the Biblical David. Michelangelo (“M”) sculpted him at around the age of 25 (sometime between 1501 and 1504), and in his interpretation, he catches the moment David sees the Goliath — sling in hand and ready to attack. Other famous artists before “M” had sculpted David, post-battle, with the head of the slain enemy. “M” was the first to capture the expression and emotion immediately prior to attack.

Here's a picture of the 15-year-old David. He CLEARLY does not looks his age. (This pic was taken on my first trip to Italy just moments before I was scolded for using a camera).

We also learned from our guide that David is not just marble, but he is actually politics. His left-facing stature is a warning to the Medici family: stay in Rome.

A fun fact! Michelangelo was actually gay. Are you surprised? Look at the bod on this sculpture. He also lived until the ripe age of 89, more than double the life expectancy of his time.

I am constantly amazed at how prolific these artists of the Renaissance were. M has about 48 known sculptures, plus paintings, plus architectural design work. He did have assistants/employees, though. They helped him on the sculpting side by chiseling away chunks of marble and getting pieces down to the basic shapes, but the man, himself, always did the fine finishing work — creating the muscle tone, smoothing away the rough edges, etc.

Travel/sightseeing tip — The Academia Museum is the only place (or one of the only places) where you can see the unfinished works of Michelangelo, which helps demonstrate the process of the carving and sculpting. As you face the David and walk through the gallery of M’s work, one of the sculptures on the left has Michelangelo’s signature — a sketch of his face — which he used to mark his marble. I didn’t dare take a picture this time around.

Anyway … enough with the writing. Here are a few more shots from our first day in Florence.

Lindsay making music on this water-filled bowl thingy. The Academia Gallery also has a large instrument exhibit, including some of the first pianos ever made.

It was rainy when we arrived but turned into a great weekend. Here are Lindsay and Terese, right around the Ponte Vecchio bridge. I love all the umbrellas in the background. Warning though -- people here are dangerous with umbrellas (and just in general) and abide by no commonly accepted rules of order. Very UN-German.

A famous sculpture, the Rape of the Sabine Woman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rape_of_the_Sabine_Women). This is a huge deal in the art world because of the elaborate sculpting work, especially the imprint made on the woman's lower cheek. This is also one of the first sculptures created with the intent of being viewed from all angles.

In the evening, we enjoyed dinner at one of our hosts’ favorite restaurants, and Terese’s husband (we’ll call him “el presidente,” or just Dan)  joined us for dinner. I had lasagna, of course, because it’s my favorite meal on the planet. It was truly the bomb. (I’ll try to get the name of the restaurants and post later).

Stay tuned for day 2 photos and notes tomorrow, featuring tips on purchasing leather jackets, a photo tour of the Boboli Gardens, a great indoor/outdoor food market, and more.