FLORENCE
City of gorgeousness, lovely roofs, magnificent sculptures, decorated walls, home of the renaissance, pretty bridges and more galleries than you can poke a stick at.
We had to get a bit organised for this place. 3 days to take in as much as we could and we've caught on to the fact that you need to book ahead - not just for convenience, but literally because you cant get in if you don't. Despite Lorry purchasing tickets for us, with allocated entry times and everything(!) there are still queues - lines for the disorganised, lines for tour groups and lines for the organised and pre-booked. All, it must be said, attended by nice line people who smile, speak wonderful english and help wherever possible. This city is a joy, despite the crowds and the presence of a fair bit of drizzle. We all love it here.
Academia Museum
I skipped this the last time I was in Florence because, à la Top Deck Tours, our tour guide took us to a copy of the David, standing outside Palazzo Vecchio and said - "There, now you've seen him no need to pay some fancy Gallery". I don't recall being overwhelmed. Seeing him in the The Academia was entirely different. The room he stands in is purpose built to provide him the space and light he is due. Walking into the Museum you find yourself in a large room with some very grand paintings, then take a turn to the left and find yourself looking down a long wide room lined with sculptures by other master artists and culminating in a halo-like dome filled by David - this incredible, enormous, majestic white statue seems literally to be glowing from the inside. And it just takes your breath away. It was originally commissioned by the Medicis to stand on the roof of the Duomo (but these plans changed as he emerged!) and he was completed in 1504 - just as the Renaissance in Florence was busily being quashed by a zealot monk. Lorry has more on this!! - and then placed outside the Palazzo Vecchio.
Nearby is a room we all loved. It's a snapshot of how on earth some of the glorious sculptures around us were made. They have dozens and dozens of original plaster models that were made by the artists (with help from their apprentice types). I didn't realise they did this. In my ignorance, had just thought these artists chipped away at a piece of marble and revealed a stunning figure 3 times the size of a normal human in perfect proportion. Well actually this IS how Michelangelo worked because he was just awesome, but in fact, most of the others started with a clay model and perfected that before creating a series of plaster moulds and models that could then be used to provide accurate scale markers allowing the artist (and his apprentice types) to increase their lifesize models to much larger scales with accuracy. Much safer than chipping blind into a massive block of marble. There was the most gorgeous model of a small boy playing with his dog in there. Its funny how some images resonate with you more than others isn't it? Will try to find a pic online - no photos allowed in the Museum.
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| not the best pic - but you can see what I mean |
As an aside, the block that The David emerged from was in fact turned down by 2 sculptors before it was offered to Michelangelo. The previous artists claimed the marble had too many imperfections and was too shallow. Ha!!!
St Lorenzo Church
We stumbled into this place, mostly because Uncle Crispy gave Zoe a list of groovy things to accomplish in Florence and one of them was go into a church... so glad we did. It may be one of those places that is fabulously famous but it just didn't come up on our radar at all, so felt like a bit of treasure to stumble into it by mistake. Thanks Chris!!!!!
This was the Medici family church and is on the site of the oldest church in Florence - original building dated from 383AD. Was rebuilt a few times and obviously with a bit of panache after the Medicis came to power - those dudes were not short of a few Euros for such things. They brought in Brunelleschi to make changes to the existing building in 14something and he added classic features of renaissance design - clever use of light and proportion gives the church a feeling of simple majesty that is missing in St Peter's in my opinion. Much easier to clear your thoughts and direct them one way in this church - should that be your intention. Many of the Medicis are buried here and they have an amazing sacristy (Chapel bit designed by Michelangelo) with a very cool mystery just waiting to be harnessed by a Dan Brown novel. The smaller domed ceiling leading off from the body of sacristy depicts the stars in a very specific configuration - and its believed they indicate an exact date in 14 hundred and something but there are no records of why that date might be relevant - either to Florence, the Church, the artist or the Medici family... its a Florentine mystery that has been puzzled over for hundreds of years.... Come on Dan Brown.... you know you want to.
As another aside, this second domed room - known as the Capelle Medici - was originally planned to house the Holy Sepulchre (Christ's original tomb) which the Medici's tried to purchase and when that failed, to steal. Both attempts failed so they had to lay themselves to rest in a newly made (and quite fancy) tomb instead. You are left with the feeling that the Medici's did not suffer from a lack of confidence.
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| As you walk in... |
St Lorenzo's church had VERY COOL guides. For a very nominal amount you receive your very own iPad-like device and a set of headphones and self-direct your own tour of the church. Why is this any better than an audio-device thingy that lets you also direct your own visit??? Because.... the iPad-device has a video component which highlights certain parts of a painting for you while they explain it, takes you close up, past where the ropes wont let you physically go, shows you other works by the same artist held elsewhere to illustrate a point, can go all CGI on you and show you the church from the base, the top, external and internal diagrams etc. In short, it was fantastic and held EACH of us captive for over an hour - which is quite a long time for us in a church! I can imagine more and more galleries and museums adopting the same.
We've also downloaded this groovy series of guides by a bloke called Rick Steve. Essential for quite a lot of Western Europe. He does audio and/or text walking tours of cities, precincts, major churches and Museums just about everywhere and his info is really good. So we read up before we go or read as we enter a given room or jump to particular highlights if we are time poor. Saved us quite a lot in audio guides already.
Uffizi Gallery
How much is too much?
How do you arrange, for the masses, what might actually be... too much? How can you, as one of the masses, possibly appreciate even a percentage of so many extraordinary pieces and not get crazy brain-drain? Well I'm not sure. One way, we decided subsequently, is to get someone to show you around. Even with the written guide we have there's a lot of searching and stopping and starting which is not a problem with a reasonably-sized gallery, but Uffizi has more than 65 rooms, thousands of works on show and each has a story of some kind. We saw people with private guides, and we imagine it costs a bomb, but the good ones were so animated and so engaging that, I think it has to be worth it if you've only got one visit and you've got an 8 year old with you.
We had instead our trusty Rick Steve and we launched ourselves inside to trace the birth of the Renaissance movement in art. The first few rooms we entered demonstrate beautifully the transition from flat 2 dimensional art pieces to attempts by artists to portray distance, perspective, animation, texture, intent, dimension, balance. Initially tricks hinting at depth - like painting someone's foot hanging over the edge of the frame, then venturing to pictures showing a main scene with action in the background and attempts to use proportioned sizing - often failing. For me, that transition was fascinating and my favourite part of our visit. Its always a bit freaky to see something you have seen replicated a thousand times in real life, in real size, in situ - and the Botticelli room is like that. If you can block out the 200 other people also in the room, even momentarily, it helps the experience I think, but Drew had another point of view. He thinks having lots of people looking at the same thing is PART of the experience - part of what makes the artwork special. For a kid that must be true.
We "ooohed" and "aaahed" and said "hey look at this..." at dozens of pictures and rooms, filed past literally hundreds of extraordinary roman statues (hardly labelled at all) - collected initially by The Medicis because the Renaissance went back to the classics to relearn how to create lifelike bodies in art - and watched as the faces and bodies changed in the frames and the colours grew richer and bolder. But at some point, your mind gets drenched and you have to start choosing. Drew's mind got drenched a little faster than ours but he did really well before he just couldn't take any more in.
By the end you shuffle past Rafael without stopping, past Caravaggio and Titian, and skip whole rooms. I started to feel guilty, walking too fast so I could try and glimpse inside another room or two while Drew was still standing up. But when a kid's had enough... well they've just had enough really. In the end you just go for the exit and say a few under your breath "sorrys" to the memory of the poor dudes who spent hundreds of hours painting pieces that hang in one of the most prestigious galleries in the world, that I just walked straight past.
I will say that the world owes a lot to the Medicis. I'm sure they were not the kindest of chaps and they might have stomped their way to the top of Florence's economy and government - and I'm not a proponent of the ends justifying the means stance - but they championed great change and although officially the Renaissance lasts less than a century in Florence, it spread and it grew and changed everything.
Galileo Museum
Mmmmmm- will say just this. Fantastic idea. Poorly delivered. Thousands of really extraordinary scientific gadgets used to measure, isolate, test, create and propose ideas put in well let glass boxes with very little explanation. Now.... if they had those groovy iPad-like devices.....
Leonardo da Vinci Museum
Devoted to the work of the maestro - with probably 5% of the budget of the Galileo - but infinitely more satisfying for the curious minded and those with kiddies. All hands on, wooden, lifesize models made from his drawings and so much fun. The laws of physics and physiology in 5 rooms - including make your own bridge, lift heavy things, pull water uphill, make a clock, use centripetal force, cogs, pistons, parachutes, how to fly, look inside body parts and for an extra euro they will throw in a slice of pizza and a drink! SOLD to the family with Museum overload!
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| Zoe Lisa |
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| Boys working out - and getting some physics |
Coming Up Roses
Our last day in Florence wasn't so structured and Lorry came back from him morning run with a surprise. We had to walk to get it though. We headed down our now familiar path through the St Lorenzo markets, towards the Palazzio Vecchio, past the Uffizi and down to the Arno River. You can turn right to the Ponte Vecchio - only bridge in Florence to survive WWII - all others destroyed by the fleeing Germans (apparently commander in charge of the retreat was given the order to destroy Vecchio as well, but decided its already-600-year-old history was worth more than his instructions. He left it incapacitated, but intact.) We turned left though and headed down river a bit. Crossing the river there is a steep climb up to the top of a hill and just before the summit is a gorgeous rose garden. With over 350 types of roses and sculptures by a Belgian artist called Jean-Michael Folon dotted throughout there are stunning views over Florence, lily ponds and families, friends and snoggers all enjoying the pageant of colour and smell. So lucky we visited in May when all the roses are enjoying their first flush.
Climbing further up the hill we completed our triptych - a third massive David on show. This one is made of bronze and has that "been out in the elements a bit long" look about it, but he's still a mighty fine looking dude. And seemed to be enjoying the amazing view from there as much as we did.
Ciao Firenze!
x
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