I havent emailed for the past 3 days. All full days of activities to make a good tourist very proud. It’s go, go, go as we see and do as much as we can for the week we are spending in each city. And there is no shortage of things to keep us occupied and on the move.
So… Tuesday was Uffizzi day. It is such a great time of year to travel, the best I reckon. We bowled up and walked straight into the Uffizzi instead of queueing for 4 hours like other times of the year. It is, as you will know, a feast of renaissance art equal to none. After 3 hours you go into gallery fatigue and I at least just can’t take in any more. But it is truly magnificent and awe inspiring.
After finishing up there we went and had some lunch in a nice little place and then decided to head for The Academy to see David..the big two in one day!! Well you can never get sick of gazing at David, he is truly splendid. That was it for me for the day and we headed home to have a little downtime before we took ourselves off for a meal. We are finding great little restaurants in this area (with a bit of help from LPG) and this night was no exception. It was called Casalinga. Great food in a terrific area and such lovely people.
The next day Tull took herself off by train for a day in Pisa. I opted not to go and had a lovely day walking in Firenze by myself. I went to the Palazzo Vecchio…all these things just overwhelm you…they are amazing with the richness of the art and the fact that they are just crammed full of beautiful objects. Here the Medici’s lived before they moved to Palazzo Pitti (tomorrow’s expedition). There is a mighty Michelangelo here among so many other beautiful artworks. So I spent hours meandering the rooms and trying to absorb it all. Then I went to the Bargello Museum known mainly for the sculptures it houses. There is a room full of Sculptures by Donatello which I loved, I think even more than the room full of Michelangelo’s that it also houses. Once again it just takes your breath away. There are also many smalIer objects that are also delightful. Then had a little lunch by myself, went off to find another Palace…the Strozzi this time only to find that it was closed until March. So sat and had a coffee instead then decided to head home.
Tull returned soon after…which just went to show that she can do it by herself when she has to pay attention!!! ( dig at her for when she reads the blog). Most of the time we are the only people in the place we are staying, occasionally others come and go, but not for long. Well on this night a young Korean girl arrived. She had one day in Florence and was heading off to use it at the Uffizzi. She was so sweet, young and naive. We asked her if she wanted to eat with us and she was thrilled!!So we took her to one of the local restaurants…one we particularly like. The poor girl speaks very little English and absolutely no Italian so it is nearly impossible to make yourself understood, must be terrible. Anyway we managed to get her a meal. She was in total awe of the amount of wine we drank (which was only a bottle between us…very moderate!!!), then told us we had red faces!!!! Anyway off she went next morning for another 1 day adventure in Venice.
Next day which was yesterday so I am catching up we mucked around a bit in the morning. My room has a leaking toilet which we told the landlord lady and she said she come at 9am…she didn’t show up so Tull and I parted company while I waited and Tull went to enquire about a particular tour. We said we’d meet at the Pitti Palace but weren’t nearly explicit enough so there was a bit of unnecessary waiting around and not knowing whether to go ahead or not which made me particularly grumpy. Anyway I went my own way and stopped worrying about it but we finally met up…blah,blah. The Pitti Palace was again totally amazing with a priceless art collection and invaluable object d’art. It just leaves you breathless…I think there is a limit in the end to how much you can absorb day after day, it is astounding really and nowhere more so than in Florence. The unique thing about the Pitti was the beautiful gardens that I wandered in (fortunately the rain let up to allow me to enjoy them). There was a long walk up to the top of the gardens that then overlooked superb vineyards and olive trees.
When we finally met up we followed up the day with another Basilica, Santa Croce, that is full to the brim with frescoes by Giotto among others. Unbelievably beautiful. It is so boring to go on about it but you would never run out of things to do and see in Firenze. Last night we went off to the restaurant you recommended Hammy, Risotto de cambi. It was good but very noisy and full of Americans. Nonetheless I had a great Ossobucco.
Now I’ve caught up to today. Again today Tull and I parted company so she could catch u p on what she missed when she went to Pisa. So off I tootled with my own little agenda but not wanting to have too big a day. So first to The Basilica di Maria Novella. It didn’t open til 11am so I headed off to find the Cappella Medicee which was on my list to see. It was so bloody grand, the Medici’s weren’t shy about glorifying themselves so here is this enormous chapel where they are all buried and glorified. It is grandiose to say the least. There are 3 major tombs adorned with massive statues by Michelangelo. Here is where many of his major works are and it is mind blowing. Take it all in then onward and upward I go…back to Santa Maria Novella and all the same adjectives are again appropriate. It drips with Frescoes by extraordinary people the main one being Ghirlandaio who has frescoes the main chapel, the Cappella Maggiore, silly…so magnificent. You finish in the church and out to the Cloisters where once again you find treasure after treasure in Chapels all over the place. Well that was it for me. Very early (2pm) but I decided to come home, do my email and have a break from it all.
Two jobs on the way home: Go to bank and pick up a bottle of wine. Went to the ATM and had my fingers all over it, noting a stain on the screen but only slowly did it dawn on me that the stain was a massive glob of spit kindly left by someone (probably with a dread disease). YUCK!! Then to get wine, picked a nice bottle…lashed out a bit! Coming into the apartment knocked it, quite lightly actually but must have been on the wrong spot, it breaks and I’m left holding a plastic bag dripping red wine. Cant bring that inside so it’s down in the courtyard waiting for me to come back to deal with it somehow…and to go and buy another bottle.
Also today bought a new purse….probably got ripped off there too but it definitely smells strongly of leather and it says made in Italy…what more can I do???
So…best go down and clean up my mess and get myself another bottle of wine.