E martedi in Firenze

It's Tuesday--I woke this morning to a crystal blue sky--halleluiah! A day without a fleece, AND a raincoat, AND hat and gloves is just fine by me! I had a quick caffe e latte at the hotel, just to wake up but not for pleasure, checked out and left my backpack--which has somehow grown, and I have only bought two books and a small bottle of contact lens soulution--maybe it's just sloppy packing... I stopped for a quick cappucino and was at the door of the Ufizzi for those with reservations at 9:15-- the tickets give you a 15 minute window, but I swear nobody ever actually looks at the ticket. But, at every museum and church that I have visited, at some point early in the visit, at one of the many turns and entrances to rooms and hallways, someone does stop you to tear off the stub, leaving you with the remainder of the ticket. All of the tickets are the same, so I now have about 8 stubs--one way to somehow remember all of the wonderful places--the unbelievable art--that I have seen.

I began this trip, like those before, sure that I would write a decipherable diary of the places, the restaurants, the museums, the shops, but once again there is too much to do, and by the time I sit to write (like now) I just can't muster up the time to go back to my ticket stubs, my guide books, and my maps to chronicle my journey... Also, I have not bought a guide book to the art of Florence, which would have been a really good idea... I have ripped out the Florence pages of my Rick Steves' 2005 Italy gide, and also the pages of the 2009 Lonely Planet book that I bought for this trip (I would have used my 2005 Steves but he doesn't cover southern Italy) and have paged through them to be sure I don't miss the highlights... then I have gone through every room and every gallery of each of the places I've visited, reading what every english translations they offer. Some, like the Uffizi today, have a short statement in Italian and in English for just about every piece, but a lot of the info describes the piece's journey to the Ufizzi...

So, it was just me and about a hundred Asian tour groups in the Ufizzi--they have a strategy where each group of about 20 completely surrounds the piece, barring the way to read the inscription or to get up close--pretty irritating until I put on my iPod with a bit of Italian pop, a bit of Pavarotti, and tried to pretend that they weren't there... it worked pretty well... I loved the amazing golden guilded and framed altar pieces from the early--12th to 14th centuries... then the Lippis and the Botticellis--so soft and spiritual. I love Michalengelo's Holy Family--the painting in the round guilded frame with the crazy heads sculpted into it--for a man known for his sculpture, he sure could paint... you see the same attention to the body, with depth and muscles, as you see in his sculptures. I don't know very much about renaissance art, but I have read a little about Michalengelo and this period and am fascinated... I saw his sculptures the last few days in other museums, and of couse the David... There is so much to know about art--to imagine the many thousands of works of art that exist and the magnificent restorations, and the people who have studied and chronicled this art... there are piles and piles of books in all of the shops--from highly specialized to general--it's impossible to imagine how captivated people have been over the millenia by all of this genius and talent and spirit and belief... of everything I have seen, I'd say about 70% is Jesus and Mary--either haloed Mary with baby Jesus, or Jesus' crucifiction... and the other 30% is murder and massacre--either of the general populace or of particular saints...

After the Ufizzi I still had an hour or so, so stopped for another capuccino and a brioche, and walked along the Arno... I took a picture coming off the Ponte Vecchio so you could see how busy this place is... but luckily you can go just a couple streets away and it's lovely and pleasant and free of tourists--this is what it looked like this morning, and a pic of the polizia, who walk around with these white patent leather bags with who-knows-what in them:

I had to take some pics of this room and its adorable kitchen/cupboard:

Ciao for now... it's almost 17:00 and I am off to explore my neighborhood... and Mariaclaudia has recommended a restaurant near Santa Croce, so I will walk a bit, then go early as she suggested (19:00) and then on the way home stop to buy some milk for my caffe latte in the morning. ciao tutti!