No 1 on my Bucket List... CHECK!!!!

HAPPY NEW YEARS EVE ALL!

These are photos I took on New Year's Eve. Not a bad way to spend a holiday! In Florence, Italy at The Galleria di Academia  with No. 1 on my lifelong bucket list... David.   This guy looks darn good given he is over 500 years old. Mickelangelo at age 26 created him between 1501 and 1504. No photo of this piece can prepare you for the impact of being in his presence.It brought me to tears...  when I saw him first and when I left. He is spectacular... sitting atop a protected pedestal, he is 17 ft tall. Nothing else in the gallery could capture my attention, only David as he considered his prospects of defeating the giant Goliath.

The veins in his right hand and arm gave me chills... almost as if he were indeed alive.

The galleria was lightly filled as we entered early in the a.m..... but quickly filled with hundreds, all quiet and respectful in his presence.  A glass barricade now surrounds his pedestal..... Some years back, before the solid barricade, a man with hammer crossed over roped barricades and damaged the right foot.

It was cold in Florence... snow flurries outside the Galleria before and after our visit.  When hubby Ray remarked about the chill, I suggested, even David  had previously stood outside for over 350 years and survived, so we could surely handle the chill. I was on cloud nine the rest of the day!