The David

Upon my arrival to Florence, Italy in the summer of 2009, I was unaware of the many cultural boundaries that existed. Walking through the markets of Florence was one of the most exciting part of my trip, second to seeing one of the world's greatest and most well-known sculptures. The markets are are simply these streets and alleys filled with vendors selling everything from clothing, foods, art pieces, and jewelry. The vendors are tricky, they're out to get whatever you have. Some of the vendors are gypsies. Gypsies were the absolute worst part of my trip. They come up to you begging for food, money, anything you have to give, and when you don't give it to them they become angry and even violent. They send their kids up to surround you, pick pocketing you at every angle and trained vigorously by their parents specifically for this skill. They'll come up and say "hold my baby" and steal whatever they can from you. One of the girls on the trip got her backpack sliced so all the items could fall out and be picked up by the children. Another girl was spit on for refusing to give money to a "street performing" gypsy. While standing in line to enter the art museum, you're a non-moving target, so we often propped ourselves against the walls or back to back so the gypsies wouldn't take things from our packs. When entering the museum you're met with the many attempts of The David first as you walk down a corridor, at the end of the corridor all I remember seeing was feet. I had no idea about the actual size of it even though I had been warned by others. Standing next to the sculpture and just looking up makes your neck hurt, it's that big. The amazing amount of detail in the piece makes it so real, you think you're looking at a real man. I was more amazed by the fact that how this thing must have been created by Michelangelo and the time it must have needed. To the day the size of this thing still rattles my brain. Pictures are not allowed to be taken inside the real museum, but they do have a replica in the main town square that doesn't do any justice, so I found some illegal pictures that were snapped around the same time I was there to give you an estimate of the size. This sculpture sets the level for all sculptures in my mind because the amount of detail and the importance of the piece of art towards development of the field still amazes me.