-
Florence, Italy
-
This place was Amazing
-
Friday - Ive made my way to Florence. Unfortunately, its supposed to rain for the next few days. Luckily, I made it through part of the day without getting soaked (particularly the portion when I was searching for my hostel, which I was quite appreciative of). The train from Venice was pretty uneventful..it took about 3 hours to get here. I picked up a book in the hostel book exchange in Venice (Mario Puzo's °The Godfather..Ive seen the movie about 15 times but never read the book, and I'm in Italy after all, so what the heck?) and was reading it. Once I checked into my hostel in Florence and dropped off my stuff, I set out to the Accademia di Belle. One thing I quickly realize (and I'm expecting this to be similar in Rome) is that you don't really walk on the sidewalks here. They are really super narrow, and you just meander through the smaller side streets until a car comes along and you get out of the way, then get right back into the road. I made it to the gallery, but I didn't reserve a spot ahead of time. Thankfully the line moved along nicely, and the rain had yet to fall. I have to admit, even though Ive seen pictures of Michelangelo's David a bunch of times, it doesn't quite compare to seeing it in person. There is this whole rotunda of the gallery reserved for the sculpture, and it was really just amazing to see. The gallery in general was pretty cool. It also had the sculpture the Rape of the Sabine Woman by Giambologna, which was pretty sweet too. One thing that I found interesting was the layout of the gallery itself. They arranged the pieces from late Renaissance and moved backward toward early Renaissance...most of the galleries that Ive visited have it the opposite way. Frankly, I'm not a huge fan of pre-Renaissance Italian art, it looks too two-dimensional, and there is too many guilded halos for my taste. Either way, it was worth the 10 euros to see David. Afterwards, there was still some light left, so I walked to Il Duomo (Santa Maria del Fiore). While I was walking around it, it began to rain, but I was able to snap off a few pictures anyway. Im going on a walking tour tomorrow of the city, so hopefully the weather will clear when I make it back there. Im planning on going to the Uffizi gallery as well sometime tomorrow afternoon. Tonight, I just walked around Florence in the rain. It really is qutie different from Venice (0bviously they have roads here), and ate dinner at this resteraunt close to my hostel. Im determined to find a internet cafe tomorrow that will let me upload pictures!!
Saturday - So as you may have noticed, I found a cafe that let me use hook up my USB card reader and upload some pictures. There are a few from Vienna and Venice, as well as more from Florence that I wanted to add, but I ran out of time. But at least you can see some of what Ive gotten to do ;) On to today. This morning I went on a walking tour of Florence. It stopped at all the major monuments, like San Lorenzo, Il Duomo, the Di Medici palaces, the Piazza and Santa Croce church, the Bargello, the Accademia and Uffizi galleries (the outside anyway), and the Piazza della Signoria (which I was very pleased to find contained the real Rape of the Sabine Woman statue, as well as Cellini's statue Perseus With the Head of Medusa). I think its awesome that the city keeps the actual pieces of art out in the open like that, for everyone to see. That way, you don't have to go to EVERY gallery in town, and can get some art for free. After the tour wrapped up, I waited in line to get into the Uffizi gallery. It moved along pretty well (it only took like an hour or so) and it was well worth the wait. The gallery was really amazing. The highlights of which were Botticellis 'The Birth of Venus Botticelli' and 'Spring', as well as Michelangelo's 'The Holy Family'. At the end of the gallery, there is a terrace that overlooks Florence, and you get a great view of Il Duomo (Santa Maria del Fiore). If anyone remembers the movie 'The Silence of the Lambs', its actually the picture of the church that Hannibal draws in his prison cell ;) After the gallery I grabbed a late lunch and took the took a ride out to Fiesole, a village north of the city.
-
-
Il Duomo
-
-
The Gates of Paradise
-
-
Il Duomo (Santa Maria del Fiore)
-
-
Rape of the Sabine Woman
-
-
Perseus and Medusa
-
-
Uffizi Gallery
Posted
Oct 26, 2007
by umichkman
Would you like to post a comment?
Sign Up for Free or
Sign In to post a comment