Firenze

I liked Florence.  It is one of those European cities in which around every corner is yet another awe-inspiring sight.  It is such a beautiful city sitting on the banks of the River Arno with arched bridges, cathedrals and great palaces dotting the skyline.

   

 

 

We arrived late morning from Rome.  Train travel is so easy in Italy, dropped off our bags and hit the streets.  We first came across Piazza San Giovanni with its exquisite Giotto Bell Tower and Cathedral (Campanile de Giotto) made of pink, green and white marble.

 

 

  

 

Next we made our way to Piazza della Signoria or Palazzo Vecchio, a beautiful, open 14^th Century square with an impressive crenellated fortress palace and dotted with old and new sculptures.  It is also the location for the knife scene in the movie Room With a View.  Bob had the movie on his tablet and we found quite a few of the locations from the movie (though the movie scenes were minus all the tourist).

Piazza della Signoria

 

Modern sculpture by the Dutch artist, Jan Fabre

 We returned to our hotel in late afternoon to freshen up for our visit to the Galleria dell’Academia.  We had bought advance tickets online because the queues are notoriously long for these art Galleries.  Galleria D’ Academia contains Michelangelo’s Statue of David which was a must see.  The rest of the gallery was filled mainly with 14^th Century religious paintings on wood.  

Michelangelo’s  David

Bob hamming it up

The next day we had tickets for another gallery, the Uffizi Gallery.  By this time Bob and I were getting a bit tired of endless paintings of the Madonna and Child.  We tried to appreciate them for their artistic merit but enough was enough.  There were some beautiful Botticellis though, especially Spring and Birth of Venus, and some great sculpture, mainly from the Medici collection.

Birth of Venus

Spring

‘No one expects the Spanish Inquisition’

As a change from the religious art work we decided to give rationality and science some of our time.  We spent our second day at the Galileo Museum.  There were no lines or crowd at this fascinating museum.  It was filled with exquisitely tooled machines and instruments of brass, wood and marble which were works of art on their own.  There were astrolabes from the 14^th Century and maps and gloves from the 15^th – 16^th Centuries that were surprisingly accurate of North and South America.  I was struck by the instruments from the 2^nd Century BC which showed the earth as a sphere.  So much for the myth perpetrated by our primary school teachers that Columbus sailed the ocean blue thinking the world was flat!

Electricity generating machines from the early 19th Century

Microscopes from the 18th Century

The day before, we had passed St Mark’s Anglican Church.  This church was big with British ex-pats last century and now has a summer opera programme.  We decided to keep up with the Room with a View theme and enjoy some opera at an ex-pat church.  So in the evening of our second day in Firenze we went to a fantastic performance of Carmen.  We had great seats in an intimate venue.  It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening.

Our final day in Firenze we went to the Leonardo Museum.  This is a museum that has made models of many of Leonardo’s designs.  It was another great science museum again sadly with relatively few visitors.

Model of Leonardo's tank design

That afternoon we made our way to Piazzale Michelangelo, a city square and park with wonderful panoramic views overlooking the city.  It is such a beautiful city!

 

 

 

So ended our visit to the beautiful city of Florence.  During our stay I made sure we went to the Mercato Nuovo and I rubbed the nose of the bronze pig to ensure we would return.