Firenza - the Baptistry and Duomo
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I
planned a very busy day. I already had reservations in the afternoon for the
Ufizzi and Acadamia. I wanted to
see the Bargelo, and Bob expressed an interest in the Science Museum (Museo di
Storia della Scienza). Thus we hit four museums in one day. I don’t recommend it, but it did work fairly well.
| We
started with the Bargelo, which is covered in Mona Winks. Photographs were only allowed in the outside courtyard
downstairs, and there’s nothing very impressive in the courtyard.
We introduced the kids and ourselves to Michelangelo’s Bacchus,
Brutus and friends on the first floor and Donatello’s Davids (there
are two) and St. George on the second floor. Knowing what full day I had planned, I didn’t need to see
the third floor since it wasn’t in the book, but we decided to take a look
anyway. The third floor has suits
of armor, swords, guns, rifles, and other assorted ancient weaponry.
It was a big hit with the kids, everyone else thought it was fascinating
as well. |
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Firenza - the Baptistry and Duomo |
We
then found the Science Museum. The loaner English guidebooklet is very poorly written.
I decided I could make a career as an English writer in Italy – I
didn’t see any evidence of any competent English writers anywhere.
It is very easy to miss all the major attractions unless you pay very
close attention. Galileo’s
microscopes are not even labeled, and the guidebooklet tells you his two
original telescopes are on the left, when in fact they are on the right. The
museum was already sweltering by 10:30am. Overall,
this was a big disappointment for me, and I enjoy science!
Bob, however, was thrilled.
We
had lunch again at Leonardo’s.
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We
then went to the Ufizzi, home of an unparalleled collection of Renaissance art
(and also covered in Mona Winks). Admission is now €8.50, and
phone in reservation fee is now €3.00 per ticket, for a total of €11.50 (but
still worth every penny). We were
able to get next day admission on a Tuesday at 12:45pm for a party of 6 (I
picked 1:30 to allow time for lunch). No
photographs allowed, not even without flash.
Robby
had enough of the Ufizzi very early on, so Kathy took him back to the hotel room
where they played cards for a while. Some
rooms (including 3, 4, and 5) close in the afternoon, and at least one room
didn’t open until the afternoon (fortunately these rooms containued very early
Renaissance art, which I found uninspiring).
I especially appreciated works of Filippo Lippi, Botticelli, and
Leonardo da Vinci, and Raphael (it's always safe to like the favorites :).
Seeing Birth of Venus made all the chaos of the day's schedule
worthwhile. Rooms
19 and 20 were closed when we were there, we we were forced to miss Cranach.
I was very disappointed to see a sign saying Titian’s Venus of
Urbino is in the Prado until September instead of the painting.
(Ironically my brother Paul and his girlfriend Lisa were in Spain at the same
time we were in Italy, so they saw Venus). We checked out another
guidebook and noticed that there are three Rembrandt’s and some Goya’s that
are unforgivably not even mentioned in Mona Winks. |
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Firenza - the Baptistry, Duomo, and Giotto's Campanile |
| After
the Ufizzi we picked up Kathy and Robby and headed over to the Acadamia.
While waiting for our 4:30 reservation time we had our first real taste
of Gelato. Bob and I loved it and
were sorry we had waited so long to try it.
Kathy didn’t like it as well as ice cream.
I especially enjoyed Gelato with real whole berries, but everything I
tried was good. The
Acadamia is amazing. The first room
is nothing very memorable, but then you turn the corner and see a sunlit David
at the end of a long hall. It literally took my breath away. I ignored Michelangelo's unfinished prisoners lining the hall
and quickly walked up to David (unfinished paintings and statues are not nearly
as nice as the finished products). We
stared for quite a while, moved on to the next room, and then came back to stare
some more. Unfortunately you
can’t take pictures at the Acadamia either.
David made a lasting impression on everyone, and was a everyone's
favorite site for the trip. It was the best way to end a hectic day. |
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Firenza - Gelato! |
For dinner we went back to Leonardo’s again.
Both our nights in Firenza we heard a loud musical performance with an audience applauding. I figured it was down at Palazzo Vecchio. Bob and Karin went out and saw it was a mime with a boom box right outside our hotel. I was disgusted to later learn the next day that I’d lost sleep to a mime, of all things.
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