The David..
Trip Start
Apr 12, 2008
1
15
54
Trip End
Jun 18, 2008
Florence,
Italy
Sunday, April 27, 2008
- Went to "Accademia"... an art gallery which contains the real original Michelangelo's David (this one is the one originally sculpted by Michelangelo, unlike the copy in the Piazza Vecchio and the metal one in the Palazzo Michelangelo). That thing is huge (the statue that is) and the information we got from the Rick Steves' audio guide made it even more interesting.
- Did the Rick Steves' city audio guide around Florence, which pretty much followed the path we took through the city yesterday. Saw some more statues around a church, interesting to think that Michelangelo stood at the same exact spot to learn from the same statues as well when he was a teenager.
- Went to Pitti Palace, got turned off by the long line so decided to just sit there with the locals and watch the people wait in line
The Rape of the Sabines
. Still a lot of people in Florence coz of the public holiday.- Went to the Bargello... yet another museum, saw more statues and paintings... yay! *sarcasm*
- Went back to the hostel to use the internet PC. Chatted with some of the other people staying there and the guy that runs the place... who served us glass after glass of red wine. Drank mine and Lang's (as she didn't want hers anymore) and stumbled off in a daze looking for dinner... had a kebab value meal in the end I think.
- Did laundry... double yay! Clean clothes!
<Lang's Extended Version>
We woke up relatively early this morning as our plan was to go to the Accademia before the line got too long. So after preparing a couple of sandwiches, we set out at around 8.15am
The Accademia opened at that time and by the time we got there 15 minutes later, the line was already about 20 metres long. We were lucky in a sense as we only had to wait about 10 minutes before we were allowed in and also we there the last ones in the group allowed in as they fenced off the entrance just after us.
We paid our entrance fee and headed straight in to see the main attraction - Michelangelo's David. It was magnificent turning the corner and seeing the statue dominating the whole building.
It was 14 foot high and carved out of a single piece of marble that many other artists in the day had rejected because it was too thin and narrow
The 3 Amigos
. We also found out from our good friend, Rick Steves, that the right arm was broken off at one stage when it was placed in the Palazzo Vecchio, out in public. We were also surprised to see that David's pupils were actually heart shaped and this was one of the few statues that depicted David moments before he killed Goliath, hence he was not holding up a head..We marveled at the masterpiece for a good half hour - and no, I did not spend the entire time gawking at his privates.. just most of the time.. Oh, his buns were pretty tight too.. =P
For the next hour, we checked out the rest of the works of this small gallery, including Michelangelo's Prisoners - unfinished works of the great artist that showed people coming out of blocks of marble as well as a plaster mould of Giambologna "the Rape of the Sabines."
The latter shows the legend of when the Ancient Romans stole the women from the neighbouring tribe to expand their population, so the husband was being trampled on while his wife is being taken away by a Sabine man.
However, nothing really compared to the main attraction, so we decided to sit in front of David again for another half hour before Brian got distracted by a painting of a naked lady on the right, so we had to go and check her out..
Portrait Artist
. After 2 hours in the gallery, we headed back to the Duomo to do Rick's (yeah, figured we'd be on first name basis by now) "Renaissance" walk. It pretty much covered the walk we did yesterday to the Ponte Vecchio, but at least this time we got to learn a bit more about the things we walked past.
It was gelato time when we finished the walk, so we had the totally divine chocolate mousse and a raspberry cheesecake flavours. OMG, it was to die for! I was tempted to get another, but Brian dragged me away and we walked across the Ponte Vecchio towards the Pitti Palace. I almost lead Brian in the wrong direction towards the hotel with the same name, but thanks to him, we were soon back on track.
We weren't really sure what to expect when we arrived as we hadn't really read much about the place and upon seeing the line, decided to skip it. From the looks of things, it appears to be a palace set within huge manicured gardens. I'm sure we didn't miss out on too much, but if we did, please let me know..
So it was back across the bridge again towards the Bargello Museum, recommended by Rick. However, on the way in the Uffizi courtyard, I was distracted by an artist drawing a portrait of a little girl. His work had been featured in one of the Lonely Planet guides and it was definitely worth seeing him work from start to finish. Some of his scenery paintings were like 70 Euros each for a small postcard sized one - way too much for my budget!
Lang and Dog Dog with the fake David
Anyway, we finally made it to the Bargello, which contained numerous sculptures - the two most famous were Danti's "Beheading of St. John the Baptist", which was originally positioned on the Duomo, and also Donatello's David, which was the very first male nude ever made. However, the David was currently under restoration, but we could still see it in progress.
We went back to the hostel after for a rest and also spent some time updating our travelblog. While doing so, we were offered a glass of red wine each by our host, Rolando. Brian is a cheap drunk and he was pissed after a glass and a half, so started giggling like a school girl (he would rather me write "mad man", but we know better!).
Anyway, while there, we also met 3 other people on holidays and had a chat with them for a while. There was Jeremy an oil tycoon from Canada, but working in Egypt - wonder why he needs to stay in a place like this? We kinda gathered the main reason was for him to pick up chicks! Then there was Stevie and Reese (I think that was his name..) Stevie was a private school teacher and waitress, and her friend was an Arts major studying in Venice, he would have been handy to have at all the galleries!
As we only had a sandwich each for lunch, we were starving by this stage and the alcohol didn't help matters either, so we went in search for dinner. The restaurant we were looking for was closed, so we wandered around for a while looking for another place, but gave up eventually and had Kebabs instead. It was pretty good actually, and cheaper than Maccas.
When we got back to the hostel, we decided to do a load of washing at the local Laundromat we had walked by - yup, we have nice clean smelling clothes again.. =)
