Florence Day Two!

Today we got up nice and early and had a delicious continental breakfast at our hotel. Can’t beat those home made croissants! YUMMMY! First thing we did was meet our lovely tour guide Tanya. Two things to be said for Tanya: very thorough, very knowledgeable about her subject matter……She was great. Only problem was she had a very soothing voice and we have all been so dead tired. First place on the agenda was the Uffizi palace. It was the home of the Medici family I believe once they had reentered society. They were kicked out at one point. They were basically the mob fathers who backed the entire take over of Florence and what made it and its reputation what it is today. Who single handedly funded most of the renaissance? Don’t worry it was the medicis. They are some serious power houses of money gaining most of their money through shady means. Hugh returns on investments and the infiltration of the system to make it work. Very powerful family the medicis. During this time of renaissance the feeling of ever growing guilt for their shady acts was the fuel to invest their money into churches and religious things to buy back their way into heaven…as a result they have some of the greatest art collections ever known. They taught and nurtured the Michelangelo. The museum is located in what would have been the loggia. It’s beautiful with great views of the Arno River. My favorite’s things that I saw in the Uffizi were: Boticellis birth of the venus. It was exquisite. Boticelli is a master of line and this is his best example in my opinion. Such grace and elegance in his stroke that the strands of gold hair on the venus seem to be touchable. I love the waves in the water all around her appear in the form of v’s and give the feeling of a subtle whisper…venus….venus….venus as if announcing in the most beautiful soft way that she is here. The venus was born.
My second favorite thing was seeing The Giotto and Cimabue alter pieces. They are paintings of the Madonna with the Christ baby. These are the predecessors to Michelangelo. Da vinici, and Raphael. These were the fathers of perspective. In the Cimabue piece the knee of the Madonna and the placement of her foot are not anatomically possible…check it out! It’s one of those fun things you love to find in a painting, like the scavenger hunt of the art world.
Next on the list was the Academia. It’s a museum that is really big and has some of the greatest things in Michelangelo’s repertoire. It was chock full of amazing things and I saw little to none of them….busy busy! What was most important and the reasons we were there was to see the David. He is so gorgeous. He was everything I wanted him to be and more. His rear end was nice too….wink! the way that the light hits Michelangelo’s David is like being bathed in the silver lining of heavens light. It holds him there in such a way that he does seem like a real live person and yet as if he was frozen in a moment of readiness, anxiety even in his face. You can feel what he is feeling… we all have our giants and Goliath was no walk in the park. We also got to see some beautiful pieces that Michelangelo was never able to finish. Half emerges from the marble half tucked safe inside.
From the Academia we took a really short walking tour of the Arno River. We stopped to sketch the Ponte Vecchio, which is a famous bridge from the renaissance that still stands. The entire way is lined with shops full of glistening Florentine Jewelry. In the middle is a retail break for a view up and down the river. It’s so beautiful. We perched our little sketch pads on the bridge just East of it so that we could have the best view. Something happens when you sketch in Italy and even though you may not be the most talented artist out there, you feel connected to those who have walked where you walked hundreds of years prior. It doesn’t matter what you are doing all you feel is the golden light of Tuscany and the image coming through and creating something, sitting in a moment you will never forget, nor duplicate. It’s your Florentine moment, and only yours.
We continued to do some more sketching in a park near the water. We followed this up by walking up the mountain side…if you call that a mountain and stood above the red tiled roofs. We saw everything. Florence is incredible.. It’s magical in its own way that makes you stop to notice and feel what life is all about.
There is a little piazza up there that has yet again another copy of the David…except this time he was green! Let me tell you how I love the oxidation of copper!!! It was a very cool lookout point and well worth the hike.
Dinner time had arrived and along the way we hopped into H and M. Well by we I mean Susie and I as apparently everyone else just took off and we thought we lost them. So we were on our own. Back to the hotel to see if we could find anyone and yet again…no. Dinner was divine. There is a really great Pizza shop that is close to Dante’s house. It is a definite hole in the wall but fabled to be the best in all of Florence. We had the Caprese Pizza and giant waters. DELISH! We topped off our carb rich dinner by the best Gelato it’s a little place called Grom. They grow and make everything for their gelateria from scratch. SUPERB! I had chocolate fondant and coffee….shhh don’t tell husband! As Susie and I walked and talked eating our delicious dessert….we got completely lost and ended up way out in a place we didn’t even know we had on our map. It was an exciting adventure with great conversation and great company. My teeny hot room never looked so good to such tired swollen feet!