Florence, Piazza della Signoria 3

I'm of course talking about the statue of Hercules killing Cacus there on the right.

Just kidding. Here was the original location that the statue of David was placed in 1504 and stood until 1873 when it was moved to a museum some distance away to protect it from damage. This is an exact replica, and while we didn't get to see the original I feel like I've seen David, especially in the landscape it was meant to be seen. One thing I didn't know was just how huge the statue was at nearly 18 feet tall. Seeing people near it and that sense of scale was impressive.

One other interesting thing I learned, Michelangelo was not the original sculptor. In fact he was the 4th person to work it on. In 1464 a man named Agostino di Duccio was commissioned to carve David and he was helped by Donatello. When Donatello died in 1466 work stopped, and didn't pick up again for 10 years when Antonio Rossellino got the call. After only a short time, for reasons unknown, Rossellino was fired and the block sat for another 26 years before Michelangelo was brought in to finish it.