NOT an X rated post

Google maps told us that it would take 22 minutes to walk to the gallery we were after, and that it would take the same time by bus or car!  Not that we wanted the latter, but it tells you how tricky the traffic is with all the narrow streets busy with cars, motorbikes, buses... It's always nice to find the pedestrian-only lanes.

We arrived at the gallery road, found the right line, for those with reserved tickets, and entered at our designated time of 10 o'clock.  Once through security, we found a spot away from the mass of people to synchronize our Rick Steves audioguides on our phones, and we were off!

Mercifully, the Accademia gallery is reasonably small, unlike the massive Uffizi we visited yesterday, and soon we were standing in front of Michelangelo's famous statue David.  It really is impressive, and large!

And here he is... well part of him...

Most of the crowds were in the room with the Michelangelo sculptures, so it was a relief to go down a hall to the Museum of Musical Instruments.  The collection came from a Medici prince, and had some very old and unusual items.

This piano-guitar was crafted around 1793 in New York by the Dodds & Claus workshop

Next we walked to the Santa Maria Novella basilica complex to see an exhibition called
Leonardo: a vision of science bridging art and nature.  Da Vinci actually stayed right there in 1504 - 1505 so it was fitting to have the exhibit in what used to be the dormitory wing.

What's wrong with this picture?  No crowds!  We arrive inside the Santa Maria Novella buildings behind the basilica

The courtyard at the end of the hall in the photo above

The exhibit was surprisingly hi-tech, and showed some of the diverse areas Leonardo studied, like tree rings, which plants can be used to produce dyes, the effect of gravity on plants, and more!

This Da Vinci device disorients the plants - they don't grow as well as ones that experience normal gravity

After the museums we enjoyed a nice walk along the Arno river.  Later we sat outside a popular "craft pizza" place, and talked with two people from Segovia, Spain.