galleria dell'academia

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our first main tourist stop in florence was the galleria dell'academia.  i made a reservation for entrance at 2:00 on a tuesday.  

 jason laughed at me for making reservations here and at the uffizi.  soon, he understood why.  we walked passed the museum earlier in the day to pick up our tickets and the lines wrapped around the block.  It costs an extra 4 EUR to reserve a time slot.  I would highly recommend it for the academy and the uffizi.  it saved us quite a bit of time and anxiety of staring a long line in the face!

 this museum gets right down to business.  in the second room, michaelangelo's slaves greet you.  the four unfinished statues lead you to the main exhibit, david.  this is the original sculpture, which the bronze sculpture in the piazzale michaelangelo and the replica in the palazzo vecchio outside of the uffizi.



















jason and i also headed up stairs to check out the artifacts that were there.  they had a number of beautiful medieval art.  they had a number of gilded, wood altar pieces upstairs.  

 the ding on this museum is two-fold, but somewhat connected.  it is not exactly clear that the upper floors of the museum exist unless you go up stairs past the gift shop.  also, given that there is no map, this also becomes tricky to discern if the stairs are for the public.  so that leads into part 2, the gift shop should be the last place to walk through.  having it split the museum in two was annoying!

 time in museum: 1.25 hrs
times visited: 1
overall: A-
Location: Gallery of The Academy, Via Bettino Ricasoli, 60, 50122 Florence, Italy

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