David, Ancient Egyptians and Za Za!

 It has taken nearly two weeks, but my body clock has switched off, and I am enjoying a sleep-in! This morning, however, we were up early as we had pre-booked tickets to see David at Accademia museum. Yes, we have seen David before. In fact, three times, but when in Florence....well, he's incredible and literally takes your breath away every time you see him. 

 

We took our time strolling through the museum though, as there are other interesting things to see here, like a collection of ancient musical instruments and half-finished sculptures by Michaelangelo.

 

After we spent time in David's company, we left, promising to visit again someday and stopped for a snack before heading to the National Museum of Florence. This place has mixed reviews online, and I can now understand why. The Italian collection of Etruscan items were interesting at times but got a bit boring after a while. But, their collection of Ancient Egyptian artefacts is amazing. In my opinion, even better than the British Museum. Ancient Egypt is one of my favourite periods of history to teach, so I was in my element among the mummies and coffins! 

 

We found a small restaurant not far from the museum that served typical Tuscan dishes, so we stopped there for some pasta. This was probably the first meal in Florence this week that we wouldn't rave about. After 10 years, we decided it was time for Shannon's suitcase to retire, so we purchased him a new one this afternoon and then went about the chore of packing, as tomorrow, we leave for Lucca. For dinner, we decided to head to Za Za Tratoria, a much-anticipated restaurant that we had heard about from some Australians we met in an Irish pub. Must be good right? I had also read about it online. While most Italian restaurants open at 7:30, this place is open from 11am until 11pm. We didn't make a reservation, so we thought we'd try our luck by showing up earlyish for dinner. We arrived to be placed in a queue, but it was moving quickly. We waited only around 10 minutes. It reminded me of my clubbing days, waiting to get into Lamby's, haha. The restaurant is huge; it takes up half a block and has outdoor dining. We were concerned a place that big couldn't deliver quality. But we were very pleasantly surprised. The food was incredible. It was so good, we forgot to take a single photo, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

Tonight is our final night in this beautiful city. Some final snaps and an early night before our early train to Lucca in the morning. Farewell Florence, until next time.