Our two days in Florence consisted of art art art art art art. Which is what I expected. We got in and immediately went to the Uffizi. Everything I’d heard about the museum said that it is so huge and there’s no way you can see it all so just pick what you want to see most and go for it. Well, I really don’t understand that. Almost the entire thing is on one floor and you walk around the horseshoe, passing through every single room, and then you’re pretty much done. Yes, the horseshoe is huge, but it’s pretty doable in 2-3 hours.
The Botticelli works were my favorite. Of course the Birth of Venus, but also a series of paintings he did with women sitting with legs apart like men which I found amusing. There was also a really cool statue room that very few people seemed to find interesting. I found a couple works that I knew where there from my art history class, but two that I wasn’t expecting — Da Vinci’s incomplete Adoration of the Magi and Raphael’s Pope Leo X with Two Cardinals were my other favorites.
Right after the Uffizi, we began our gelato binge, which is still going strong. It’s just too good, I’m sure I will have it every day this summer. We managed to catch the climax of the sunset right after dinner, although the one the next night was way better.
The next day we went on a walking tour, which was fantastic. Our guide was from Northern California (Sebastopol), so I liked her immediately, and she told really good stories. We went to see the David after that. Again, I’d heard that the line to get in is hours long, so we made reservations, but there was NO line. And there were probably less than 100 people in the entire David section of the museum when we got there. Maybe it was just a fluke. Well, David is pretty cool. I noticed a lot of things about him that I did not pick up on from looking at pictures, and being able to walk all the way around him was amazing (especially with a light crowd so I didn’t have to bump into people like I have had to all around Rome).
The second night the sunset was one of the best I’ve ever seen. And the gelato we had each night (from Gelateria de Neri) was the best gelato I've ever had.
The other highlights of Florence:
The Duomo — SO big. I had no idea the façade would be so beautiful, and the dome itself was extremely impressive, especially since Brunelleschi was inventing techniques to make it possible as he went along.
Aperitivo — The Italian tradition of early evening drinks (meaning 7-9pm) where you order a drink and get a free finger food buffet. The Tuscan wine was excellent.
Ghiberti’s Doors (close-up pictured above) — I did a project on these in high school so it was really exciting to see them, both the replicas on the Basilica and the originals in the Duomo Museum.
Donatello’s Mary Magdalen — I found this at the last minute in the Duomo Museum. Definitely the scariest statue I’ve ever seen, but also really cool since it’s carved from wood.
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