Saturday 26 November – Florence Day 1
Had an early night and a huge sleep. Suddenly realised it was almost 10am and they have a lockout from 10-2pm. This is the first time we have come across this strange arrangement but it is quite common in hostels. We had a hasty DIY brekky of cheese and salami sandwiches (come back Franco) and sneaked out at 10.15. The Uffizi gallery is barely 100m away so we lost no time in getting in there. Apparently 3 hour queues are not uncommon in season but we had barely 10 minutes to wait. Maybe we have been lucky but the weather here has been excellent. Clear skies, warm sunshine and no wind. Much better than dealing with the intense heat and impossible crowding here in the summer season.
By noon we were numbed with galleries. There were a lot of benches scattered around and I was much happier sitting watching the passing parade (particularly Americans). The first thing I noticed was how many people walked along, reading the labels to see who painted/sculpted the works, without looking up at the artworks themselves. I was doing much the same myself. There was one woman of about 60, wearing headphones attached to an audio guide in her husband’s bag, who wandered around, apparently totally oblivious to her complete exposure below the waist. She was wearing stockings (ok call them leggings) but her top barely reached her hip bones and the rest was just out there on display. What WAS she thinking? He seemed absorbed in some world of his own.
On the subject of exposure, you can’t help suffering a serious penis overdose. They are EVERYWHERE – even some of the Italian noses looked like penises. OK they were all discreetly undersized but unless you are a nudist it gets to you after a while. What the hell . . lets go there anyway . . it looks distinctly inappropriate to have these hulking muscular bodies with little boys’ weewees. Surely Moses and St Paul deserve the benefit of the doubt and could reasonably have been depicted with schlongs appropriate to their ecclesiastical standing? As for (2”) David, I am convinced that Goliath died of apoplectic laughter and that any damage David did with his slingshot was incidental.
Having thus decimated the readership of our humble blog, I may as well finish off with the representation of the female bits. There were breasts aplenty, although far fewer than you would expect. As for the nether bits – well there weren’t any. South of the navel it was all Terra Nullius – smooth skin like a 1950’s doll.
As for the artworks, for my money the most impressive items were the sculptures outside. A copy of Michelangelo’s David, Perseus with the head of Medusa by Cellini, and the Rape of the Sabines by Giambologna.
David
Perseus 
Random statues
Inside, I have always liked Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus, now known as Venus on a Seashell. J liked his The Allegory of Spring. There were a few more recent works by lesser 18th century artists that attracted us because of the more realistic, less static, impact. We also liked Michelangelo’s The Holy Family (which has the most amazing frame) and Caravaggio’s Head of Medusa (both circular paintings). There was a remarkable stoicism evident in the demeanour of the various saints suffering torture in many of the works, and a general serenity in the large number of works about the Crucifixion. Some of the subject matter was quite gruesome, like the Slaughter of the Innocents, the pair of statues (before and after) of some troll-like figure being skinned alive by Apollo after losing a music contest(!!!) and my favourite, a very realistic (one would guess) representation of two women decapitating an Assyrian sleaze who had tried to seduce one of them.
After a bit of a walk across the Ponte Vecchio (bridge over the Arno river) we were happy to be allowed back into our room (although the hostel was still locked at 2.30). It was very noticeable that the sun never gets overhead up here and at this time if the year it seems to be in your eyes all day long. We rugged up against the cold at about 5 and had another longer walk.
This is a lovely city to stroll in. Lots of narrow streets with little or no traffic allowed. They have mini sized electric buses, rubbish trucks and the occasional horse and buggy. I have enjoyed the look and feel of the shops, some modern, some old fashioned, some tiny shops below street level. As it is getting close to Christmas, some are all decked out with Christmas displays and wares and look magical. After dark, which is about 5pm, the fairy lights in the streets come on and it makes these lovely streets sparkle.
I love buildings/architecture and they have some quite distinctive ones here. Many churches, palazzo and just solid grand buildings. The tower on the Palazzo Vecchio is like nothing I have ever seen before.
Duke Cosimo de Medici
Such an amazing amount of history is all around.
Can’t wait till tomorrow to go and discover some more.
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