Statues of "Naked People"

One of the highlights of our Spring Break trip to Tuscany last year was our opportunity to visit the Academia in Florence to see Michelangelo's statue of The David.  It was breathtaking and impossible to describe.  The Academia is really a pretty small museum when compare to most in Europe.  It housed tons of statues to see but honestly, like most tourists, we were just there to see David.

 We got lost looking for the museum and must have walked by these tiny signs a dozen times

What surprised me the most about The David was actually how big the statue is.  It is huge! The museum does a great job displaying it also. The placement of it is pure strategic placement at its best. You arrive into the museum and have to meander through several hallways of art before you come to another hall on your right, and there he is!  It was amazing...Photography was "strictly forbidden"...HA! There were "no photo" signs everywhere and several guards and museum staffers to enforce the rules, but honestly, no one said anything to the dozen or so people who literally walked right up and started to take picture after picture.  We tried to be a little more discreet...which is why our pictures are crooked!

Blurry photo of the David at the end of the hallway.  This is literally your first glimpse of him as you turn the corner.  It was breathtaking.  You can see just how big the statue actually is!

 The ceiling is domed above the statue

See that man to the left of the statue...I had no idea how BIG the statue actually is! It's amazing to think that the entire statue was carved out of just one huge piece of marble!

David, from the REAR...no pun intended...ok maybe a little pun :)

Smaller statue of David outside the Academia.  There were actually several throughout the city of Florence--another surprise!

 The kids with naked Poseidon 

Family shots infront of the museum.  This was literally the only time Delilah rode in the expensive Italian stroller we bought for this trip.  She hasn't used it since!

I often wonder how our children will remember their time here in Europe. Steve spent several years over in Germany and England while he was a teenager and he loved it.  His time over here then is the reason why he pushed so hard to get us over here also.  Because Tory and Trey are older, I think they will have a similar experience as their father.  I hope they will look back on our years here in Italy and remember it for the fabulous experience it has been.  With Jackson and Delilah, I'm not so sure. Certainly, Delilah will not remember much.  She is just too little.  But with Jackson, I'm not so sure.  He loves it over here and has loved our travels and adventures.  We try our best to balance our hours in museums with some fun time for the kids, but apparently we didn't do a great job of that on our trip to Tuscany!  When JAckson got back to school and Mrs. Tramm asked him what he did over spring break, he told her that all he did was "see a bunch of statues of naked people"....I counter that with this...At lease they were FAMOUS statues of naked people!!!