Da Vinci

Today we took a combination of train/bus to Vinci, the birthplace of Leonardo Da Vinci. We spent a measly 4 Euro per person to enter the Leonardo Da Vinci Museum which basically takes up about 50% of the town of 1500's space.

The museum was really cool. There weren't any artifacts of his, but there were dozens and dozens of working scale models of some of his inventions. They included many types of cranes (that's how they got the marble up the sides of giant churches), weapons, flying machines, boats, textile machines, clocks, etc.. We were both really impressed with the scope, detail, and explanation (iTouch guides!) for all of the exhibits.

I should also mention that half of the museum is housed in a 15th-century castle with some original frescoes still remaining. The top of the castle also had amazing views of the Tuscan landscape.

After visiting the gift store and having a quick lunch, we headed back to the bus stop to return home only to find out that even though buses arrive and finish in Vinci every 20 minutes coming from Empoli, they only return once every 2 hours! Luckily we only had 1h55min to wait for the next bus... Thankfully we found solace in a gelato shop for a while only to hear some loud-ish engines running outside. I went out for a peak to discover a bus for Empoli had arrived! We ran and had an excellent shorter-than-anticipated trip back to our place in Florence.

We decided to do a bit of laundry when we got back. It was a bit of an experience in that the power kept going out in the laundromat we were using, however, 1h30min later we had lots of much better smelling and looking clothes. I don't think we've mentioned the weather recently, but it's about 34 Celcius here in Florence. Ick. Especially after climbing stairs all day. Ick.

After laundry we went out for dinner. I don't recall where we went exactly, but we had some wonderful pizza and Florentine Steak. We've been told that this is a must while in Florence, and we were not disappointed. It was a succulent thick T-bone steak seasoned only with salt and pepper and grilled rare. The special part about it is the actual cow it comes from: it's very meatier and less muscle-y. I'm not really too sure how to describe it, so perhaps google it if you're more interested or that doesn't make sense!

Tomorrow we have our last full day in Florence and hope to see the statue of David as well as lots of other works of art.

Ciao for now!