David and Pop-Pop's Europe Trip
Florence, Italy
Here is a picture of the most prominent copy of Michaelangelo's David in Florence.
The statue is famous not only as a depiction of the ideal male form, but also because of the subject matter. Before this statue, the renaissance artists had always been artistically depicted the young David as physically unimpressive, to further emphasize the miracle of his defeat of Goliath. But Michaelangelo read the story for himself and was impressed that David had wrestled with bears and lions long before meeting Goliath. Surely, he thought, this youth was a fitting subject for scuptling an ideal male physique.
After the tour of central Florence the tour group went to dinner, the best group one so far [or ever]. To celebrate the fourth of July as the token Americans at the table Pop-Pop bought the table a bottle each of read and white wine. With my soda this still only came to sixteen dollars (for good local wine, nonetheless), and yet it created a hearty and jovial atmosphere of Pop-Pop relating travel experiences and complimenting facets of Italy while the Australians agreed their beaches were the best in the world and Nice wasn't such an exceptional locale after all.
It is good to be in a place with reasonable prices. Although Italy's money is a bit rediculous at 1500 lira per dollar, conversion is easy and prices are similar to at home. By comparison, Spain was about twice as expensive and France even more so, unless you really hunted for bargains.
The Italian team won a World Cup game tonight, and it looks and sounds like all of Italy is driving around, honking and waving flags.
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