His hands are too big, his head oversized. Yet the statue is considered one of the greatest works from the chisel of an artist. I circled this marble masterpiece like an unworthy prize fighter sizing up Muhammad Ali, snapping photographs the entire time, hoping that a few might be in focus.

This meeting with Michelangelo’s David was a highlight in a wearying assemblage of treasures within the walls of Florence. Upon her death in 1743, the last Medici, Anna Maria Luisa de’ Medici, bequeathed the dynasty’s 400-year accumulation of priceless art to her beloved Tuscany, with the stipulation that not one piece ever leave Florence.

Treasures pack Uffizi Gallery, Pitti Palace, Palazzo Vecchio and outdoors, too, almost everywhere you look, an embarrassment of riches that borders gaudy. But not quite. What a problem to have.

That doesn’t include the stunning architecture, the Ponte Vecchio and the house of Vespucci. Yes, that Vespucci.

And although the Duomo, officially called Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, is magnificent, my favorite cathedral is the Basilica of Santa Croce, where lie the remains of Michelangelo, Donatello, Galileo, Machiavelli and Rossini. The crypt for Dante sits empty because he died in exile in Ravenna.