He's weak in the ankles.

Michelangelo's "David" statue "risks collapsing under its own weight because of strain on the sculpture's 'weak ankles'."

The "David" has stood in Florence's Accademia Gallery since 1873. The statue in the Piazzia della Signoria is a replica:

Florence, Italy, May 1984. Some tourists assume the "David" guarding the Palazzo Vecchio's entry is the original statue.

I visit the Uffizi

Florence, Italy, May 1984. This morning's Uffizi post reminded me of my visit to Florence. I didn't find the city charming. There were more tourists than in Venice. The historical sites stood in a tight area that made the city center seem like an amusement park. The place was claustrophobic. I also had some trouble understanding the Florentine dialect, which softens the "c" sounds: "Casa" becomes "hasa," for example.

Florence is the city in which I encountered my first "ugly American." As I sat sipping a macchiato, a woman exclaimed to her husband, "Why can't these Italians make a decent cup of coffee?!"