Day 5, Tuesday, April 5, 2016: Day 4. Our day in Florence,Italy; La nostra giornata a Firenze, Italia. Our day began with a guided walking tour of Florence. More of a guided Renaissance walk through Florence with not your average tour guide. A tour guide who is also a university history professor, took us on the Renaissance journey of the history of the buildings, art history & political statements of the buildings, paintings, and the sculptures. He showed us how the birth place of the Renaissance was in Florence, how it affect the region to how Florence is a Fashion Capital of the world to how its influence even shapes all the Apple stores.

Our guided tour took us from Plazza di San Giovanni, to the Piazza della Repubblica, to the Strozzi Palace. Continued with a walk over the oldest bridge in Florence the Ponte Veechio and the to the Piazza della Signioria.

After our guided tour and free time for lunch we met back up at the Piazza della Duomo where we made our way to Accademia. Accademia is home to Michelangelo’s David and the unfinished Prisoners. The art work and sculptures in the Accademia are amazing. Some of the orchestra members while visiting Davis had a Hunger Games celebrity run in with actress Willow Shields (Correct me if I am wrong on the actress). They do have photos to prove it, maybe they will share.

We all had the rest of the afternoon off, to shop, stay in the Accademia, visit the leather markets, relax, get gelato, etc.  till a pre dinner rehearsal for the performance the next day. We finished our day with dinner at Restaurant Alfredo. It was an early night with a performance in Livorno and traveling to Cremona the next day.

Note: Pictures and details of the trip will be posted over the next several days in chronological order of the trip.

More pictures of Day1-5 are on our Flickr Italy Group Page.