Days 14 & 15: L’Accademia e Firenze di sopra

January 1, 2011August 21, 20242 Comments

Not much description today, as I am currently on a bench outside a cafe with WiFi, it is cold, and my battery is low. While there are internet points all over and I can check e-mail/comments easily enough, I need WiFi to actually upload photos from my laptop and I have had terrible luck finding any that works. Please forgive the irregular schedule lately.

On the 30th I went to the Museum of Archaeology, which included Etruscan burial hordes and pottery, and a whole bunch of Egyptian artifacts, mummies, and papyri; I also managed to reserve a ticket to the Accademia that afternoon, where I saw Michelangelo’s Davide and a whole bunch of other sculptures.

On the 31st, I made the climb up to the Piazzale Michelangelo, where stands a bronze replica of Davide, and from which you can see all of Florence. It’s magnificent.

Looking west, with Ponte Vecchio:

Looking north:

The hills south of Florence:

Ponte Vecchio again (I just loved this angle):

Church of Santa Croce on the right:

Anyway, it is officially 2011. Where the heck did the time go? It was a beautifully clear, sunny morning, so I was going to climb the Duomo, but of course the cupola was closed. Instead, I went to the Medici chapel and will hopefully post those photos soon.

Buon’anno, tanti auguri, e ciaociao!

Day 13: Toscana Mia Amore

December 29, 2010Leave a comment

No photos today. I have finally returned to Florence, which really is my favorite city out of all that I have seen (with a close second being the utterly charming Lucca). I am indescribably happy to be back, and have treated myself to a truly wonderful meal of green tortelloni with truffle, ricotta, sage, and butter, plus red wine (these Tuscan reds are so spicy and alive!), pannacotta, coffee, biscotti… truly a delight.

My current hotel does not have internet, so I am not sure when I will update next with photos, but I will be thinking fondly of all of you. <3 Thank you all so much for your kind comments. I can't describe how happy I am that you are enjoying this blog.

Before I log off from this internet café, I would like to announce that I will be offering prints of all of my photos when I return to the States. I print through Kinko\’s because their rates are reasonable and the print quality is very good. If any of my photos catch your eye, please feel free to contact me (comment, e-mail, LJ, or Facebook are all fine) and we can discuss price, size, method of delivery, or any other questions that you might have. If I owe you for Christmas/other holiday/birthday/gift of any kind, you may end up with some whether you ask or not!

Ciaociao! <3

Day 6: Lucca Bellissima

December 22, 2010August 12, 20241 Comment

Before getting to today’s main attraction, I need to indulge myself for just a moment. Today I finally dropped by il Mercato Centrale in Firenze, planning to pick up some tasty treats to bring with me on what I had intended to be a day trip, and oh. This place is a foodie’s ultimate fantasy. It has both an indoor market of all kinds of food and an outdoor set of stalls with fresh vegetables and fruits of all kinds. It is saturated, every inch of it, with the aroma of porcini mushrooms. There are more cuts of meat, more organs and viscera, than I have ever seen in one place in my entire life. There is cheese–so much cheese. There is pasta, fresh and dry, there are cured meats, there are spices, there are oils and vinegars and wines. I could have wandered it for hours, watching the butchers hack at enormous slabs of beef with knives as long as my forearm.

I bought two big green pears and two tender orange clementines, and then I went to the station to catch the next train to Lucca.

Lucca is two years shy of its 500th anniversary–it was once a Roman outpost, evidenced by the stone and earth walls that still surround the core of the city. Its character is similar to Florence, but more relaxed and intimate. It has a number of churches, and many small piazze with elegant Romanesque statues.

Near the center of the city core is Torre Guinigi, the tower of the palace belonging to one of the city’s wealthy families of yore. It’s a steep but relatively short climb to the top, from which you can see the entire city and beyond to the surrounding hills.

I was simply stunned.

I mean, seriously.

I was originally only planning on a day trip to Lucca, but it got late and I decided to find a place for the night instead of returning to Florence and trying to do the same. No complaints here! Lucca is simply beautiful.

Tomorrow: departing for Rome!

Day 5: Uffizi e Loggia dei Lanzi

December 21, 2010August 12, 20241 Comment

The snow is melting, and the temperature is consistently above freezing at last. The sun tried very hard to peek through the clouds, and there were patches of blue sky for a little while! Looking up and down the Arno on my walk to the Uffizi Gallery, there was a very thin, even fog over the whole city.

Photos were not allowed inside the gallery, but in the enormous Piazza della Signoria, adjacent to the museum and Palazzo Vecchio, there is an alcove with beautiful Roman statues, called Loggia dei Lanzi. It’s essentially an outdoor museum, and contains statues from Antiquity and the Renaissance.

The steps into the alcove are guarded by a pair of lions. I found this interesting because of their similarity to the Chinese guardian lions situated in pairs outside of temples and palaces, which also hold a sphere (or, in the case of the female of the pair, a cub) in the inside paw.

Menelaus supporting the body of Patroclus.

Perseus with the head of Medusa.

I loved all of the statues here, even those not pictured. They are kinetic, dynamic, even as they stand still. Many of the statues showed their subjects in motion, as if captured in the midst of a dramatic struggle.

Piazzale degli Uffizi is lined with statues of important figures in Italian (especially Florentine) history. My favorite was of Niccolo Macchiavelli.

I love it because he looks so crafty.

The Uffizi Gallery was predominantly religious paintings and portraits of aristocracy, but also had a great array of Roman busts and sculptures. Paintings depicting Greek myth are, I think, my favorites, but there was a special exhibit of Artemisia Gentileschi, whose paintings were incredibly powerful and emotional–far more so than most of her male contemporaries.

Day 4: Museo e Cattedrale

December 20, 2010August 12, 2024Leave a comment

I’ve been terribly indecisive about food here, and have gotten into a bad habit of wandering around, block after block, looking into shop and restaurant windows but never actually going into one until my feet and back start to hurt. Part of it is that I’m still intimidated by everything, and part is that there are just so many of them.

Lots of the big museums and things seem to be closed on Mondays, but the Museo del Duomo was open – I must’ve spent a good two hours wandering through it. This museum houses much of the art, sculptures, architectural structures, and relics that are no longer kept in the cathedral for whatever reason, as well as old blueprints and wooden models from the planning of the building itself. The Duomo was in construction for literally six hundred years, through the lifetimes of many architects and through multiple architectural and artistic styles, so it is very interesting to see how the plans for the building changed over time.

After the museum, I went into the Duomo – formally, la Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore (Cathedral of St. Mary of the Flower) – itself, which was spectacular. Unfortunately, the light was extremely low, so the few photos I have are awfully grainy and uneven.

The inside of the Duomo itself is this huge, elaborate fresco.

The Duomo was built on the ruins of a much, much older cathedral, that of Santa Reparata, which dates to the 4th or 5th century CE and was the Christian religious center of Florence up until the Middle Ages. From the Duomo, for a small fee, you can go down into the excavation of Santa Reparata, where some of the columns, mosaics, and stonework remain in situ.

Out of all of the art and beauty that I witnessed today, this was certainly the most profound.

I thought about going to the top of the Duomo, but decided to wait for a day with clearer skies (and after walking beforehand a lot less). Tomorrow, I plan to hit the Uffizi Gallery and hopefully some others as well.

Day 3: Siena, mi dispiace

December 19, 2010August 12, 20243 Comments

Mi dispiace! No photos today. The attempted trip to Siena turned into a slight disaster due to my lack of understanding of Italian bus systems. I had the address of a nun-run hotel that I was planning to stop by, but attempting to follow the provided directions somehow left me at a bus stop on the outskirts of town. After spending hours hiking up and down icy hills and trying to find my way to the city center, I gave up, returned to the train station via street signs and dead reckoning, and caught the next train back to Florence to nurse my wounded ego.

I am exhausted, sore, a little overwhelmed, and sad to have lost an entire day to this, but I am really coming to love Florence–good, because I’ll be spending a lot of time here starting in January–and I think I’ll hang out here until it’s time to head to Rome (hotel reserved starting the 23rd). I’ve found a comfortable youth hostel that I think will do for the next few days, and I’m excited to do some more in-depth sightseeing here.

Listening to Italians chatting on their cell phones can be entertaining, especially as they say their good-byes. They seem to like the word “ciao” as much as I do and will say it repeatedly, all mushed together, as a farewell. Most men stop at two repetitions (and I think this “ciaociao” is mostly reserved for girlfriends), but women may say it five or six times in rapid succession.

It’s currently raining, which will either melt the snow or freeze it overnight into an icy deathtrap. Weather Underground reports rain and (for the most part) temperatures above freezing.

Tomorrow, conditions providing: let’s go to some museums!

Doing the Thing

let's goooooooooooooo

Category: firenze