Our day started bright and early with our 8:15 am museum reservation at the Uffuzi. This is a rather large art museum that contains a ton of pictures that are mostly from Italian artists and mostly about poor interpretation of the Bible. I again saw things I know aren't in the scripture and it annoyed me quite a bit. We bought a museum guide to help us not miss the more important works, such as the Botticellis, however, the book wasn't really good at telling us WHY the important works were important. The placards under the pictures weren't either, as all they told was the history of the cataloging/inventory of the pieces. I saw a lot of stuff, including the important stuff; I'm not sure why it was important, though. I do know the Michelangelo in the Uffuzi is both the only certain Michelangelo work that is not like, on the ceiling of a church, and can be displayed in a museum. I also know it was the first depiction of Mary with Jesus where Jesus wasn't in Mary's lap. Otherwise, I have no idea.
We actually finished with the Uffuzi in three hours, and after a short panic where were realized I left my missing sunglasses in the ticket office (returned without incident) we continued on to find a pannini and back to our hotel. We actually had enough time to take a nap before our Accedemia reservations.
The Accedemia is a small museum that is in Michelangelo's old art academy. It houses Michelangelo's "David," which is an impressive and emotional piece of art. It's also HUUUUGE (David was, as described in the scripture, young and small). It's also uncircumcised, and David was, being all anointed and the future King of Israel and stuff, Jewish. Regardless, it's a beautiful statue and more interesting and emotional than I ever would have guessed.
There are some very nice paintings in the museum, also. This particular museum has cards under most of the paintings with the name of the artist and if it's an important work, it says why. We ended up spending an hour and a half in this very small museum, and learned more than we'd ever imagined.
After that, we wandered over to a nearby plaza to eat a snack, and then we caught a bus up to Piazza Michelangelo. This is like the Mallory Square of Florence, and we were well early for the sunset. We took pictures and staked out a claim in a primo seat. And then we waited. I know why people think Americans are loud: they are. There were a host of college age kids all doing their summer in Europe (I could overhear all of them, so loud), picking each other up, talking about home. So loudly. This is why they find each other, the English language beckons like a homing signal in a clear stream. These people have no concept about speaking in hushed tones. A lot of Italians were shooting them dirty looks, which were ignored, of course.
The sunset over the city was gorgeous, and I've included a few pictures. It was so worth it.
On the way back, we stopped at a random wine bar and had wine and bruschetta. After this, we found an internet café and the next thing we knew it was like midnight. We wandered around, not having had dinner yet, and found an open pizzeria.
Dinner was excellent, the pizza outstanding. There were some strange Americans sitting next to us who randomly started talking to us, very interested (to being insistent) about if we were honeymooners. I don't think they believed us when I told them we were married almost 13 years. Oh well. Then these other Americans, young ones, maybe 20, came in. They wanted food, but then never ordered any. They did make a big (loud) deal about wanting to take a picture of a gallon sized jar of Nutella, though, which they never did do. Everyone they asked in the pizzeria, "Can we take a picture of the Nutella," the answer was always, "No."
Later, some Italians came in, well after midnight, and ordered like a thousand food items. A man came out of the kitchen and they had a very heated exchange (in Italian). It was quite bizarre. With that, we called it a night.
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