Vacation in Italy - Florence - Palazzo Vecchio & Uffizi

Palazzo Vecchio ("old palace") is Florence's town hall, and has been since 1322. It's huge, imposing bell tower stands out from quite a distance. It was originally used to call citizens to town meetings and warn of fires, floods (the river), and enemy attacks. The Uffizi museam is adjacent.

Click on any of these thumbnail images to see a larger version...

No, this isn't the "real" David. It's in the Accademia museam, but all the books said it's pretty much the only thing in there worth seeing, so we skipped it, considering that there was this actual-size copy of it in the Palazzo Vecchio, which is where the original David stood until 1873.

I don't know who these guys are, but the bottom one can't be too happy. That is the Uffizi Gallery on both sides in the background.

Me! Candid, obviously, in the courtyard (or whatever you want to call it) between the buildings of the Uffizi Gallery.

Taken from the opposite end of the courtyard, you can see the bell tower at the Palazzo Vecchio.

These guys, one dressed like Michelangelo, would (for money?) let people come up and get their picture taken with their face in the Mona Lisa with Michelangelo "painting" them. Hardly anyone was doing it.

What can I say. Kathy had to take a picture of David's butt. :-) There's another stature placed behind him that appears to be doing the same thing...looking at his butt.

The fountain of Neptune...with us standing in front of it, of course. This is in the Piazza della Signorina, adjacent to the Palazzo Vecchio.

This is the Uffizi Gallery. It contains "the world's finest collection of Renaissance paintings" according to one of the books I have. We stood in line for over an hour to get in. Unfortunately, no photographs were allowed inside...

This is the outside "courtyard" area (for lack of a better word) between the buildings of the Uffizi. It was filled with street vendors -- some legal, some not. It was funny because periodically a police car would drive slowly through, and many of the unlicensed vendors would pick up their stuff and run and "hide" behind the pillars until the police left, then out they would come and set back up again. A little game they played over and over.