We ate breakfast as a group and went to meet with our ISA guide and our tour guide for our second walking tour around Florence. Our tour took us to Pointe Vecchio, outside the Uffizi Gallery, and the Medici Palace, among others. Pointe Vecchio means “old bridge”. Our guide told us about how it was destroyed and then rebuilt a little differently than the original. Along Pointe Vecchio there were a series of chain-linked barriers with hundreds of locks on every one. Our guide told us the meaning of this, which was that couples would write their names on a lock and lock it along the chain-linked barriers. This symbolized the bond of love. She joked about how the Italian men must have loved that because Italian men are known to romance many women. This led us to the outside of the Uffizi Gallery (which we would visit on Friday). There were human sculptures, which are people in various costumes (Cupid, Sphinx, etc.) outside the gallery that would stand still unless paid (usually 1 euro). Once they heard the coin go in the can, they would start moving and posing for pictures. The tour then took us to the Medici Palace. It was really amazing seeing the architecture and artwork in this place. Every room we entered had a different story. My favorite part about the Medici Palace was the garden. It was very simple but it had statues and a fountain. It would be the place I would be most often if I lived in the Palace.
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