Today, we are going to head into Firenze once again and this time, we are going to visit a museum or two to view the art of the Renaissance.
A seafood truck was in the town square that offered various items for sale.
Biking is incredibly popular in Italy and everyone wears complete gear when they hit the roads. Honestly after riding the roads of Tuscany in a bus, I am still leery of renting a scooter, let alone a bike, and the .003 blood-alcohol law on a wine tasting trip doesn't help either. The buses honk prior to going around certain corners, because they know that they will consume the whole road to make the turn.
The number of scooters in Firenze is amazing. Business men and women in suits and skirts are making their way to work. By law, they have the CHOICE to stop at a stop sign if they want to and they are allowed to lane split, so change lanes with caution. Hopefully this motorist came out of this OK.
We made our way over to the Duomo to get a closer look. The building is enormous. Note the people on the balcony near the top of the dome to attempt to get some scale.
We found many nice little leather shops. We stopped in this one. Kelly got some gloves and Christal, Davin, and I found a hat to keep the sun off of us a bit.
Next, we headed over to the Ponte Vecchio area and to the Locks of Love. Paddle locks that are left by couples to ensure eternal happiness.
Nowadays, there is a fine of 50 Euros for leaving a lock, but it doesn't appear to be slowing the tradition down much.
The Uffizi was the offices of the Florentine magistrates and over the years became the resting place of the Medici Family's art collection. As I hinted earlier, get a reservation instead of waiting in line for literally hours. The picture below only shows a portion of the line that only allows about 20 people in about every 15 minutes.
I have to say, it was nice to see some of the great works of art that I have seen in the Art History Books such as Botticelli's The Birth of Venus and Primavera, Da Vinci's Annunciation, Michelangelo's Doni Tondo, and Titian's Venus of Urbino along with some of the most famous sculptures in history as well. It was also nice to see some of the key pieces in history as artists were beginning to learn about perspective in their work, but this collection is huge and I felt bad that I wasn't truly appreciating all of it, because there were so many examples of everything. It is safe to say that there are 100 examples of several pieces such as church panels, busts of Caesar, etc. After we had our fill of culture and tour group mobs, it was time for a break. We found a roof top bar for a peaceful retreat. In Italy, they charge a cover charge to sit at a table, so tables were often empty an peaceful.
After a break, we decided to visit the humble dwelling of the Medici family. The Medici family were great promoters of art, so they commissioned plenty of art with their wealth. They were the banking family of the Vatican, so they did alright for themselves. Again, note the size of this home that actually was in multiple parts because they built it on both sides of the street!
Gratuitous public servant photo:
The hill to the villa...
Oh, I haven't mentioned the hill up to the villa, yet.
I finally took a picture of the hill that leads up to our villa. I would estimate the incline at an average of 40 degrees. Although the view is stunning and worth the trek, this hill was a constant topic of conversation, especially after a long day in Firenze.
We are starting to get the Italian lifestyle down. Like Mexico, everything shuts down from about 1-4 and everything closes between 6 and 7, so we need to make sure that we have our wine, meat, and cheese for the night before going to dinner that may not start until well after 7 PM.
Go to 6/17/11
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