A Day Of Museums & Crowds In Firenze
Trip Start
Sep 13, 2007
1
2
3
Trip End
Sep 16, 2007
Florence,
Italy
Saturday, September 15, 2007
After a quick little breakfast of toast and a croissant at our hotel, we hit the pavement and made the quick walk over to the Uffizi.
Uffizi Gallery Sign
It was just on the other side of Ponte Vecchio from our hotel, only taking us about 5 minutes to get there. We walked up to the u-shaped building, turned the corner that puts you into the museums courtyard and stood face to face with a huge line at the reservation entrance. This was a surprise.
Uffizi Gallery Reservation Line
In Rick Steves' "Italy 2007" book, he describes entering the Uffizi with a reservation as simply as just walking up to entrance #3, getting your tickets from the window and then "...walk briskly past the 200-yard-long line - pondering the IQ of this gang - and scoot right in through door #1...", and at this point one would be inside the museum.
Uffizi Gallery Reservation Line
Sorry Ricky-Boy, we love your books and they have been amazing so far, but it didn't quite happen that way. We stood in the reservation line for over 25 minutes and then finally were allowed to get our tickets. By this time it was around 9am. We then walked over to door #1 where the museum entrance is, tickets in hand, fully expecting to be able to "scoot right in" as Mr. Steves explains in his book. There would be no scooting in. The line to get in once you had your tickets was even longer than the reservation line. There was a separate line for people who didn't have tickets or reservations. I think that was the group that owned the IQ's we were instructed to ponder. We got in around 9:45am, a full hour after our reserved time. Oh well, I suppose Rick Steves can't be right one hundred percent of the time... no human ever is. And if they tell you they are then they are more than likely wrong one hundred percent of the time and are confusing fantasy with reality. Besides, the extra wait was worth it. The Uffizi Gallery was everything we expected and more. A treasure of amazing Renaissance art in the birthplace of the Renaissance.
Michaelangelo Statue Outside Uffizi Gallery
One thing about the museum that is super nifty is that they only allow six hundred people into the museum at a time... hence the long lines and the need for reservations. As we wandered the two main hallways and took in all the brilliant sculpture, I was happy to be walking around in a museum where you had so much room. It wasn't brilliant art work mixed with human beings all falling over each other standing on each others' toes. You could spend some time in front of the pieces you wanted to and not have to worry about being in someone's way. I wish it would've been like that when we were at the Musee D'Orsay in Paris. If there was one thing that I wish would've been different about that museum, it would be that they only allowed a certain amount of people in, like the Uffizi Gallery.
Leonardo Statue Outside Uffizi Gallery
But hey, I'm greedy. I want all these paintings for Laura and me. I want everyone else who has the idea of visiting them to just change their minds and go somewhere else for the day. I want to just walk around with no real purpose in mind and stand in front of every painting for fifteen minutes and soak in every color, every figure, every object and every symbol. I kept thinking about how amazing it would be to come to one of these museums at night and walk up to every painting while holding a candle, thus viewing it by the hauntingly beautiful glow of candlelight. They should have a night like that. Someone would light one of the paintings on fire though. Whether by accident or on purpose, you know it would happen eventually. Maybe they could force everyone who wanted to come in for the "candlelight museum night" to take an IQ test, thus eliminating anyone who would be stupid enough to do such a horrible thing.
Building Reflections On River Arno
Speaking of stupidity, I have to share this. I remember when I was in 7th grade and we were reading "The Diary of Anne Frank" for English class. Our teacher asked if any of us knew of anyone who had any World War II memorabilia that we could display for the next few weeks while we read the book and discussed it. Kind of a cool idea. Well, it just so happens that my Grandfather was a tank driver in World War II, and he had mailed back quite the scary piece of memorabilia. During a particular operation where they took back a high school gymnasium from the Nazi's (who were using it as a weapons cache), my Grandpa got his hands on a giant Nazi flag that had been hung from the rafters. He mailed it home to my Grandma, and it had been in a shoebox at their farmhouse ever since. What better way to bring the subject to life than have a huge flag symbolizing the most pure of all evils hanging in the classroom? I was amazed that my Grandparents said yes when I asked if I could borrow it. The next day, bringing it into the classroom, my teacher was amazed, as was the rest of the class. The giant swastika hung in the class for the next week as we read the book, making it seem as if we were the ones hiding from the Nazis, as if they had taken over the classroom, as if we were about to be another part of their extermination. But, of course, there had to be one real moron in the classroom. This kid, I've forgotten his name now but he more than likely has lost all his teeth and is addicted to crystal meth, took a black permanent marker and wrote "white power" on the flag. Everyone was appalled. Why would someone do that? What is it that drives people to be so completely stupid? Luckily, a professional was able to restore the flag to its original condition (the school paid for it). The kid was suspended from school for a week. Oh no. Tell a kid who doesn't want to be there anyway that they can't come to school for a week. What a horrible punishment. Personally, I think he should have been castrated in some sort of barbaric public ceremony. Anyway, I'm done rambling about that. The point of my story is that it's that kind of person that would not be allowed to come into my candlelight museum night. Back to the Uffizi. There were highlights here and there, but the main attraction was most definitely the Sandro Botticelli room and the room containing a couple of Leonardo's early works. Botticelli is an absolute master at painting the human figure. His paintings are magical and freeze a person where they stand. I couldn't move away from his painting of Spring's transformation into the Goddess Venus. It just locked me in and there I stood, staring in amazement. He has this thing too where he is constantly putting strings of gold in people's hair, and then fully translating how the light would reflect and play off of these gold strands. The man was a genius. Besides the Botticelli's and the two pieces by Leonardo, here are a couple of the other pieces we liked by artists neither of us had even heard of: (1) Piero di Cosimo, "Perseo Libera Andromeda", which was this beautiful painting of this knight slaying a sea beast while one group of people played musical instruments, another group of people looked on in horror, all while a couple of other two knights were running down a hill and were extremely late for the battle. (2) The other painting was by Francesco someone, I don't remember his last name and I didn't write it down. It was basically a portrait of a man that looked just like the actor Johnny Depp. Laura said that the fella in the painting wasn't as hot as the real thing though.
Horse Slave
Our Uffizi sightseeing completed, we left the museum and started walking around in the Palazzo Vecchio area. I don't know the name of the square, but it sits next to the Uffizi and the Palazzo, which was once a residence of the powerful Medici family. This large square has a plethora of tourists, and some magnificent statues including a copy of "David" and "Rape of the Sabines", both of which we would see later when we visited the Accademia on the other side of town.
Rape Statue Outside Palazzo Vecchio
There were also some horses with those little eye patches over their eyes. I don't know what those are for but I'm sure the horse doesn't appreciate it. The square was beautiful but it got old pretty quickly... we're starting to get burned out on crowds.
Crowds In Florence
Outside the Uffizi area, we made our way over to the Instituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza... the science museum of Florence. Once inside we realized this was a gold mine. There was barely anyone inside of the museum, which consists of two floors of Renaissance clocks, telescopes, scientific instruments, surgical instruments, globes, maps, gadgets and Galileo's finger. Someone hacked his right middle finger off before he was buried, and it's in the museum. How cool is that? It just so happens that when sculpture and painting began to die out in Florence, music and science took over. This brilliant museum traces those steps and has some amazing sights inside. I can't really go through everything, but the most interesting rooms were the ones with Galileo's finger and all of his equipment, including the now fractured lens that he used the evening that he spotted Jupiter up in the heavens. They also have a couple of his telescopes, which were made out of paper and copper. The other room that blew us away was the map room. There were gigantic globes inside, sitting alongside maps that had the most beautiful drawings integrated into them. Everyone had such a romantic idea of what the Earth looked like back then. It seems like that type of thinking has pretty much ridden off into the sunset. There was one more room that was rather interesting but also scared the bejesus out of Laura and me.
Laura Outside Duomo
The room contained forty-one wax sculptures of women having complications during child-birth. Giving birth back then must have really sucked. If you're ever in Florence you have to go to this museum. It's a break from the art and it's another side of the city's history that people usually don't think about. We spent about two hours inside, and then headed off towards our final museum of the day, the Accademia. 
Florence Crowds
As we walked towards the Accademia we made a little side trip to the Duomo. This little area of Firenze houses the famous Duomo dome, chapel, baptistery and tower. The dome is absolutely breathtaking from the outside. The lines to get in were so long though, and the square was so crowded, that all we really did was snap some pictures of the baptistery doors and the Duomo and then got the hell out of there.
Carvings On Baptistry Bronze Doors Copy
The famous baptistry doors are now copies of the ones created by Ghiberti. The originals are now at the Bargello sculpture museum in Firenze. They are the doors that Michaelangelo once said must be the gates to paradise. As we left I saw this kid spit at a young gypsy girl that was obviously begging for money near him. Isn't it bad enough that she has to beg for money all day? Why spit on her?
Duomo Area
After another gelato and a bit more random walking we finally arrived at the Accademia. This was more the museum where you could just walk right past the line outside, go up to the reservation window, get your tickets and then walk right into the museum. No waiting. It was perfection.
Painter Outside Accademia Gallery
The Accademia is first and foremost a sculpture museum, with two floors of Renaissance art above the sculptures, including some Botticelli's. We skipped the paintings and stayed on the first floor, diving right into the beauty of "The Rape of The Sabines". We had seen a copy of this sculpture in the square near Palazzo Vecchio, but it was nothing compared to the real thing. The giant, swirling block of marble grew out of the floor and reached for the vaulted ceiling of the room, seeming to never end. In the sculpture, two males are struggling over one fear-drenched female, a horrible scene turned into a piece of art that is obviously using the suggestive subject as a metaphor for something. I really don't know enough about the statue or the subject matter to explain any of it. We stood in awe of the statue for a minute or so and then made our way towards the museum highlight. One of the highlights of all museums in Europe. Turning the corner, we were face to face with Michaelangelo Buonarottis' unfinished "Slaves" sculptures. Just beyond them and dominating the entire massive room, was the incredibly moving statue of David. The "Slaves" sculptures were interesting because, being unfinished, it gives you a peak into the genius of the sculptor, particularly the genius of Michaelangelo. To think that the man would walk up to a giant slab of marble and then chisel out something so beautiful and life-like, it's just something that is completely unfathomable to me.
David Copy Outside Palazzo Vecchio
And "David", I don't have the words to describe the power this sculpture has over a fellow human. Laura and I were blown away in a way we did not expect. It is the most perfect human figure that feels so non-human, being that it's made of marble. The muscles are sculpted as if David had been real and Michaelangelo used some sort of alien freezing device to capture time. The veins protrude out of the arms and hands. His pose is so defiant of anything that should try and stop him. It's beyond anything I had expected. The statue itself is huge. It must stand at least 60 feet tall, if not taller. I don't know how in the hell Michaelangelo did it, but it's obvious to me now why he is known as one of the greatest artists that ever lived. Laura and I sat down behind the statue for about ten minutes or so, taking a break to just take it all in.
Walking away from "David", we made our way over to a room where they had a bunch of paintings hanging on walls in random positions and surrounding several finished and unfinished sculptures. The paintings were amazing, though all done by relatively unknown artists. I usually record all of my favorite paintings and their titles on a little notepad, but unfortunately I am currently unable to locate the notepad. Since I don't remember the artist's names or the titles I can only really describe what I saw. It was really only one painting that was amazing. It was a painting of Leonardo Da Vinci on his death bed, surrounded by friends and family and those who understood the world was losing a great mind. One of the people standing beside the bed had this look of despair and loss that was heartbreaking, a true portrayal of the way a person feels when someone they care deeply about is in the throes of passing into the underworld. It was brilliant.
Leaving the Accademia, we made our way back to the hotel for a rest and a shower. Completed with our busy little day of sightseeing, it was time to start the search for dinner. We used our Rick Steves Italy 2007 book to locate a place to eat. It seemed like every restaurant we went to from his book, the people were kind of rude. Finally, as we were nearing the point of passing out due to lack of food, a drunk New Zealander walked up to us, put his hand on Laura's shoulder and exclaimed, "Arggghhhhh! You'll needs to goes to that resteeeeeront abowwwt two blahcks thata way"... he went on to explain how great it was and blah, blah, blah. We went there and stood on the opening line. Most of the restaurants in Firenze don't open until around 7:30pm, so you end up standing in line at the good ones waiting for the doors to open so you can hopefully, maybe get a table without having a reservation. We got one, had our delicious traditional Italian meal and then got the hell out of there, exhausted and ready to retire for the evening.
Sidewalk Chalk Artist Creating Pavarotti
Laura had fallen asleep right when we got back from dinner, and I went up to the roof terrace/bar in order to work on the travel blog, go through pictures and enjoy a glass of wine. After an hour of hard work on the blog, the bartender Rafael invited me to a table he was sharing with a young French girl, Virgine. The bar was closed. The lights were off. The temperature had dropped profusely. We sat around a table lit by a single candle and chatted about music, art, Americans, Europeans... whatever struck our fancy really. Rafael gave out a few glasses of wine on the house, him being the good man that he is. He had moved to Italy just seven months earlier from his hometown of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Once I found out he came from South America, his appearance made sense. He bore high cheekbones, dark skin and hair as a black as a raven stretching down to the middle of his back. It was the look that most white men are secretly jealous of. Turns out we both were into the same stuff too. He played keyboards, piano and guitar, studied music at a school in Brazil and was teaching himself how to record. Thus, we had a lot to talk about. Poor Virgine was soon out of the conversation. At around 1am, I could stand the cold no longer. My teeth were chattering. Due to everyone's suffering, we called it a night. It had been a pleasant evening of wine and conversation, and I informed them that tomorrow night Laura would join us. After parting pleasantries and goodnight's, we went our separate ways and I was off to bed.
I had planned on us visiting about three other museums the next day, but due to the massive crowds and the fact that we really already saw what we came to the city to see (the Uffizi and the Accademia), we decided to join a small mountain biking tour group that heads for the hills of Tuscany every day. It seemed like an interesting, fun way to see one of the most famous and beautiful wine regions in the world. As the following day unfolded, we realized more and more that we had made the right decision.
Firenze
