Today, I crossed the street from my Airbnb on Via Ricasoli to the Accademia Gallery or Galleria dell’Accademia. The Accademia is most famous as the home of Michaelangelo’s David. I’ll have a post up with my observations on David in the next few days.
For now, I wanted to share some other photos I took today. It turns out that the Accademia houses an impressive collection of musical instruments, including a violin, a viola, and a cello made by Antonio Stradivari. These are some of the most precious stringed instruments in existence. On the open market, the pieces in these photos are collectively worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $10 - $40 million! Another thing I didn’t realize is that Stradivari had a wonderfully long and productive life. He was 93 (maybe 94) years old when he died in 1737!