Italy Vacation, Part 8 - Florence and Venice

5/16/15

Our final day began with a trip to the Galleria dell'Academia to check out the actual David and not the fake that we saw during our first day in Florence.  Lines to get in for estimated at 4 hours long, but our tour guide whisked us to the front of the line because that's how she rolls.  The museum had a couple of lesser known and unfinished Michelangelo sculptures and a ton of Stradivarius violins, but the only piece of real significance was the David.  Not worth a 4 hour wait, but very much worth the 5 minute wait that we endured.

NFSW: Penis in background.

After checking out the David, we wandered through the Basilica di Santa Maria Novella near our hotel and checked out the final resting spot of our third Ninja Turtle, Donatello, at the Basilica di San Lorenzo, where many of the Medici clan are also buried.  After checking out the dead people, we made our way to the train station and we bid Florence goodbye and began the 1 1/2 hour train trip to Venice.

Basilica di Santa Maria Novella.  We chugged champagne at night next to
the obelisk in front.  

RIP NINJA TURTLE.

Our train ride was uneventful and we arrived in Venice with time to spare before dinner. We snagged a water taxi to ferry us across the Grand Canal to our hotel, the Bauer.  We checked in and began our walk to our dinner at Club del Doge at the Gritti Palace.  We had a table outside overlooking the Grand Canal and had our second best dinner of the entire trip, eclipsed only by Eden on our first night in Rome.  After dinner, we walked down to the Piazza San Marco, which is conveniently located about 5 minutes walk from our hotel.

About to board the water taxi.

Walking to dinner.  

Dinner at Club del Doge.