Our last day in Florence began with a trip back to the Palazzo Vecchio (the town hall of the city), this time to tour the inside of the historic building. The main chamber (the Salone dei Cinquecento) was particularly awe-inspiring, with ornate murals covering the walls and ceiling. I can't imagine the enormous amount of time the artists must have spent painting while laying on theirs backs 40 feet off the ground on scaffolding. In addition to the paintings, many historic statues were arranged throughout the boundaries of the room.
The rest of the palazzo was equally impressive, with a seemingly endless maze of rooms to navigate, all adorned with more murals, period furniture and sculpture, and other more modern artwork as well.
After the tour we grabbed some lunch back at the Mercato Centrale, but not before sparring with a strong and sudden afternoon rain shower. A little wet, but no worse for the wear, we headed back towards the direction of our apartment stopping at the Bargello Museum along the way. The rain had picked up once again, but the open-air courtyard of the Bargello offered ample protection while we browsed the collection of artwork and antiquities within. Some of the ornate historic firearms were the most interesting pieces to me.
One of the many arched windows seen from inside the Bargello courtyard
A bronze statue of Mercury from the 1550's
We spent a few hours recuperating back at the apartment before heading out for dinner. The sun had just gone down, the sky still a beautiful twilight blue, and the lights of the city were starting to come alive, which yielded one of my favorite shots of the trip of the back of the Palazzo Vecchio.
We had a great meal at La Cucina del Garga, a small restaurant with a cozy atmosphere about 1.5 km from our apartment, where we enjoyed the quintessential florentine steak. While the meal was certainly a highlight, the nightlife scenes on the walk back were my favorite memories of the night.
Sadly, that night concluded our time in Florence, but there are still many amazing images to share from our time in the hills towns of Tuscany over the following week.
For other posts in my Italy series, see below:
The last major location we visited on our trip was the town of Civita di Bagnoregio, about 10-15 km. south of Orvieto. The town is truly impressive, sitting atop a rock outcrop that overlooks the surrounding countryside.