Firenze (Florence)

We knew we couldn't come to Tuscany without visiting Florence. Well, when one visits Florence it really does feel like the city of art. Everywhere one looks the city is plastered with incredible sculpture, architecture and art. It really is a feast for the eyes.

For days we had been trying to figure out just exactly how we were going to make it into Florence. We knew that Florence was much bigger than Siena and that it would likely be swarming with tourists and city chaos. So far we have largely avoided driving in or through larger centers, but when we looked into the other options, we just couldn't see any other way of getting there. We figured that a Sunday would be a good day to try it, so yesterday we got up early and steeled ourselves for the drive. Well . . . it turned out to be no big deal at all -- all the traffic was streaming in the opposite direction, heading to the seaside, and when we got to the edge of the southern wall, we found parking within easy walking distance to all the sights we were hoping to see. Yippee!

We started with finding our way to the Duomo -- talk about ornate glory! What a spectacle with all of its intricately carved marble. We all thought that it definitely beat out the Duomo in Siena.
After gawking at the exterior of the cathedral, we started winding our way towards the Galleria dell' Accademia where David, the famous Michaelangelo sculpture, is displayed. We all felt we couldn't miss out on seeing him "for real." We were expecting a big fancy art museum, but were surprised to find it was a rather non-descript, graffiti covered building with a very long queue of people waiting to get in. It took us about an hour of waiting before we made it through the entrance -- Kai and Pippin were amazingly patient. When it came to purchasing the tickets, we clutched a little at the price (40Euros for the 4 of us -- eek, that is about $68 Canadian), but bit the bullet and headed on into the gallery. Interestingly, they were holding a Robert Mapplethorpe retrospective which was drawing parallels between his photography of the human form and Michaelangelo's works. This was what we started with before entering the hall where David lives. Then . . . we found David . . . wow!
We spent a long time walking around and looking at all sides of David. The kids managed to maintain a mature demeanor, only punching us in the arm a few times when we made comments about certain parts of his anatomy. It probably helped that were lots of other kids in the gallery seeing what they were seeing and somehow not giggling hysterically! He really is quite something. We then checked out the rest of the gallery, and while they have an interesting collection of some really old (600 - 700 year old) religious paintings on wood panels, we were kind of disappointed with how small the gallery was given the cost. We felt like we had kind of blown the bank at this one spot, so we weren't able to check out the Uffizi where, of course, there are a lot of major Renaissance works displayed. Oh well . . . we will have to leave that for the next trip!
We spent the rest of our afternoon wandering through the old streets finding lovely old sculptures and fountains here and there . . .
We also found a free gallery with the works of a known Italian painter on display, he was there, but we didn't talk to him -- we just checked out his art . . .
For all of you who like the Percy Jackson & The Olympians series, here a statue of Poseidon in all of his glory!
Like all big cities, Florence is not immune to the graffitti culture -- some of it was really fun -- this piece was right near the Galleria dell'Accademia . . .
Even though we were not able to enjoy the inside of the Uffizi, we definitely enjoyed the goings on around it -- there were artists of all kinds . . . cartoonists, painters, portraitists, performance artists of a sort . . . Here is a view of the river with an old covered bridge -- all of the little buildings on top housed various merchants.
A pretty view near the Uffizi Gallery . . .
Tourist central -- this outdoor "room" of major sculptures was just around the corner from the Uffizi.
As we mentioned above, there amongst the artists were performers -- all along the steps of the gallery were a variety of these "statues" all playing their particular parts to perfection. We were completely drawn to "Cupid" here who was really playing his part. He was winking and huffing and puffing and just being very Cupid-like. We just had to contribute to his little busking basket, and when you do that, you get a little personal interaction. Neither of the kids would go for it, so Skye stepped up and had some fun! It was the perfect end to a lovely day in Florence.
Until next time . . .

Skye, Ronato, Kai & Pippin