The Big Guy

He's a major reason people come to Florence:

David

I took his picture from every angle.  And here's the phony David at the Piazzale Michaelangelo which is at the top of a mountain and has the best views of Florence:

Phony David--Piazzale Michaelangelo

Florence remains unbelievably crowded. We had a voucher for the Accademia today so we went a little early and found the line for people with tickets. The line for people without tickets had to be 2-3 hours long. We stood there for about 20 minutes when a nice lady behind us told us, in broken English, that we couldn't enter with our vouchers but had to go get the actual tickets down the street. She even told me to go and Lola to hold the place in line, so that's what we did. It seems I'm always behind someone with a major problem at the voucher place but as it turned out, Lola had to let just a few people pass her by and then we got inside. The statue of David is, of course, magnificent, but the setting is what cannot be captured in a picture. It sits under a dome skylight giving great lighting to all the people taking selfies.

We wandered around the rest of the gallery and saw the Michaelangelo unfinished Pieta and The Prisoners. Surprisingly, it didn't feel that crowded in the museum and it's fairly quick to get through it.

From there, we went to the Bargello since we knew that's a smaller museum and it turned out to be everything you want a museum to be. No crowds, walk in and pay admission, and small. Here is the courtyard:

Bargello Museum Courtyard--the round thing is a very deep well

And the most famous piece, the Donatello David:

We planned to go by bus to the Piazzale Michaelangelo since it was highly recommended by our hosts and some of the guidebooks. Our hosts said you have to take a bus up the mountain but can walk back.  After a nap, we walked to the train station to get the bus. The first #12 bus that was supposed to arrive shortly didn't make it. There was a sign reporting when the buses would come but ours changed from 10 minutes to more than 20. Finally, it came and it was packed. We knew there were many stops along the way but more and more people got on and no one got off. I heard a young man next to me say the bus was always that crowded. Plus, there was a group of young men who thought it was funny to sway with the bus--they almost crushed us. Finally, we made it. Besides the phony David, there were lots of souvenir stands, an Italian guy singing old songs, like "Mrs. Robinson," (he was good and was making lots of tips), and grassy areas where people were sitting.  The views are spectacular:

View from the Piazzale Michaelangelo

Some bridges over the Arno

When we finished the sightseeing, we looked up the map to get home and discovered it was a 26 minute walk or 28 minutes by bus. We knew we'd have to wait a long time for a bus and be claustrophobic again so we walked down the mountain, crossed the Ponte Vecchio which was crowded as usual, and made our way home. Total walking for the day was almost 7 miles. 

Tonight the time changes in Italy; luckily, our Uffizi tickets are for 11:30 so we should be able to make that. Seeing great art often seems to be a lot of work...or at least, a lot of walking.