Well shoot - I just pushed my Canon camera chip into my computer badly, so this morning's tour notes will be woefully absent of pictures, though I'll do what I can about finding some from my phone. Very disappointing, but I suppose that will be one less thing I'll be taking on my daily walks. Also wondering how that chip is ever going to be rescued, or if it's deep in the darkest icy cold depths of Dante's Inferno. I'll see what I can do with pictures from my phone camera.
We have a tremendous view from our Breakfast nooke. We can see the Duomo and the city skyline. So beautiful! There are birds flying all around the roofs like starlings. I look up what they might be and it looks like probably the commoon swift. They aren't too different from starlings, but they disappear as the sun rises. Really wonderful breakfast and chatting around the tables.
I got about 7 hours of sleep last night. Not as much as I would like - but having this break to get back to the hotell and rest (and download my brain onto this journal) will be helpful and refreshing. Clean slate for the afternoon, though I still need to find a way to get legitimate catch-up sleep.
to be fair... I've seen worse pictures that I could have picked up. And the paper it's printed on is halfway decent quality. And I am absolutely framing this effing thing and putting it on a wall somewhere to remind myself to look down and not be tripped up by conniving crooks.
Morning tour
Prep for the morning tour is to lather on sunscreen and grab the hat to protect my face. Will need to relather in advance of this afternoon, too. This morning is a walking tour of the city. They're offering whispersync, but I decline. I honestly thought that meant we were going to be listening to an audio tour, but we actually had a guide and I stayed close enough to listen much of the time. The rest, I'm ok with having missed. I think I would have been tripping over my feet not paying attention to where I was walking if I had been listening - Plus then I wouldn't have been asking questions so much. Listening on the radio is more like a recording, even if she is talking right there. I know few people ask many qustions anyway - but I always ask questions while I'm taking notes & trying to understand something.
I'm not going to recount the whole tour - just what I'm oberving.
Paving stones - I notice they're all different sizes and wonder why. They're all squared off, but lots of different sizes of rectangles. They have differential erosion - clumps missing in places and the edges near cement seem to be higher than the center a lot of the time. They are smoothed off. I do wonder what kind of rock they are. Limestone? Not Marble, I don't think. I do notice the INSANE amount of marble used in building and sculpture. People build with whatever they have in most abundance. The Fluorentines are rich in Marble.
Cosmo de Medici's statue is at the Pelaza del Signoria. He is on the horse with one foot raised. He was a military man in part, but always a supporter and lover of the arts. I loved the Medici series on Netflix and wish they would put it back up. I would love to have a copy on disk if they would print it. That's a series I want to watch over & over & over again.
She mentioned the Piazza della Segnoria was built in 1299? The fountain around 1400s? Is Neptune's naked body actually sculpted from Cosmo's possing for it? What am I hearing right and wrong? LOL - oh well. Details can be googled if I need to check. ** fact check from Wiki quickly says Piazza buit 1359 & Uffizi Gallery in 1359.... Pallazo Uguccioni 1550 (fascade attributed to Raphael) - this is why we check our facts and why "telephone game" teaches valuable skills in childhood that should be used throughout life.
We also see Michaelangelo's David in his original place (not the original sculpture, but I knew that already. Dissected corpses? I thought that was illegal and he could be put to death for doing that under Catholic rule? I know DaVinci got in trouble for that. Why is David's sling in the left hand and the rock in his right? Is Michaelangelo saying David is Left-handed? (sinister?) He wouldn't be holding the sling in his left hand .... but maybe it's just how he needed David artistically for perspective.
Hercules is the other Statue. Political propeganda. Perseus killing Mesdussa - head raised, standing on body of the dead woman - reminds us of the success of Cosimo (who commissioned the statue and was a commoner, like Perseus - both of whom also end up with wives with pretty imprssive pedigrees). Really great statuess - very disappointed at the missing pictures.
I had gotten some really beautiful pictures of the Baptristry - I may go back & get some with my phone since it is so close and I need those.... Duomo... Uffizi.... this actualy kind of kills me. Ugh. It's almost 5pm. I wonder when they need us next.
<updated Baptisery pictures with 6/15 walkabout>
Comare the panels above to the older door panels from the "back" of the Baptisery to get a fuller understandingn of how much the art was advanced by the Ghiberti reliefs above. Click here & scroll down to read about the baptisery door competition. Very sorry I was unable to get inside to see the originals, but some pictures of the originals (housed inside the baptisery) can be viewed at the website link provided above.
Duomo make-up pix
Uffizi - So many wonderful statues of Italian greats - Dante, Amerigo Vespucci, Gallileo.... Redi.... Macchiavelli.... so many
River Arno passing through the center of Florenzi - bridge crossig with the homes & shoppes built in i actually one of the newer bridges because the original got bombed during WW2 story here
We saw people skulling & kayaking in the Arno, along with the ducks who ignored the people and carried along with their day.
At the end of Uffizi is Amerigo Vespucci (right)
Galileo- see the telescope he's pulling out of his sleeve? Old joker LOL - they've got his midde finger at the Galileo museum to flip you off with (pic below - just for fun)
Niccolo Machiavelli - troublemaker!
REDI REDI REDI REDI!!! WOOT! Bio Science geek moment.
Where's the beef? Oh... no... where's the maggots?
Uffizi Palace - Magnifica!
DANTE! Another Troublemaker. Reason so many people today consider the 7 levels of Hell to be cannon, despite any mention of them in the Bible and the fact that there's very little biblical emphasis or decription of Hell. This guy's propaganda rewrote the entire vision of faith. And to the people at the time, I'm sure they understood it to be allegorical. Just like the artists' work are allegorical - but then we started believing Jesus was white, there was some idealized perfect Holy Family scene and that (sorry Da Vinci) all the Disciples & Jesus sat on one side of the table holding court instead of around it in conversation. No, Dante is not responsible for all of that, people today are responsible for themselves and their restructuring of Christianity to fit a Renesaince Ideal imagery spliced together with the judgement of Luther's protestantism. Ok.... soapbox done. Love, Peace, and Collaboration.
Leonardo Da Vinci - Good call on including artistss to have a good balance of Mind, Spirit, Art, and Power represented in the statues around Uffizi.
I have no idea when these were sculpted... you want to know more about them, too? click here
Hmm.... not as much there as I wanted. Here's more about Donatello, though. Sculpture date still aluding me.
Cosimo the Patriarchal Father. He established the fortune that his children continued to build and establish the Medici dynasty, which will be remembered in history like that of Julius Caesar.
Lorenzo the Magnificent - Head of the family, warrior & conquoror & defender of Florence. Patron of the Arts - at one point he was cast out of Florence for 5 years or more, while his wife remained behind to run the business and keep tabs on politics. His work is very much the reason that the Medici name is remembered today.
Paintings for sale in Palaza - appear to be originals. I ended up getting shafted by a guy on the street who yelled at me for stepping on a picture - he had laid a whole lot of them on the ground and I was trying to get something settled about when we're going into the Academia, which meant I ended up stepping on the edge of one (didn't have a mark on it at ALL). He comes at me yelling tha I owe him 20 for the picture - blah blah - I talk back a bit - he picks it up and starts shaking it at me, so I pull out my money & give him 20, while he starts pointing & saying to give him the other 10 I had in my hand and I say "You said 20, you are not getting more." So then he backs off and starts coming over and offering me a tube to put it in and everything. I haven't even looked at the picture. I am definitely taking it home though.
Lunch @ La Cantina in Santa Croce
Clover ordered a ice tea & I got a Bellini - with water. So very nice to have air conditioning for lunch here - clover will be having a focaccia sandwich & i am having a baguette - both with tomato & cheeses.
You get lots of pictures of lunch because - the phone was out instead of the Cannon!
Went to to Galleria dell' Accademia and saw Michelangelo's. David, this afternoon with the kids.
Because.... just a *moment* of play :)
Seriously though - A truely magnicient piece
Have heard about the toe being broken off by a tourist, but it was returned and reattached.
They have a room full of plastic casts of statues, but there was little other art that interested me greatly.
Big girl, little girl :)
for Juno statue above
Yep - this is the guy who launched a thousand wars....
Unexpected late entry by Michaelangelo....
However, I did really like the tempura on wood paintings that I'm sharing here. The detail and the shading is beautiful, and the expressions on the faces are very human.
After traditional Italian pizza dinner, I separated from the group again to work on my blog but also go back and make up some of the pictures that I've missed.
Well getting pictures of the baptisery. I saw people queuing up to go inside and realized it's open tonight till 8:30. Which means I could definitely get in!
However, it's a sacred place and Italians ask that we have certain clothing requirements met. So I've gone back to pick up something to cover my shoulders in the hotel then heading back.
Hotel location - see? Easy!
It's much more comfortable walking around alone, I find, than with a large group. With a large group, you're automatically kind of pushing people away from you because you've got so many boundaries on either side that are naturally created by human obstruction.
On your own, you can look people in the eye and smile at them. You can pass by and notice little things about who they are and what they're doing. Just by observation. You can hear the sounds, smell, the smells... The good ones and the bad ones.
The pressure in my head releases and I ground with these moments of solitary walking through the streets in the evening watching the people walk their dogs and their fathers. The city ceases to be just an object of interest and becomes A human place. Filled with friends, riding bikes, home together, the camaraderie between employees, and older men just smiling and enjoying and life as they breathe in the air. It becomes a home.
People worship here as they've been doing for a thousand years and longer. I want to see a little bit of that. A little bit more close up and feel it. Not just explore around the edges.
Well my mistake... Apparently I can't get tickets at the entrance. 😂
Joke's on me. Visit to the Baptistery is not happening tonight. But I can go around and look at the back doors which is what I was getting ready to do originally when I got distracted the first time.
And another joke was on me... Oh no it's not. I found the second doors.
Guitarist plays "my way" on one side of the Duomo, while a violinist plays a similar nostalgic sad tune on the other.
But I've had enough walking for today so it's time to head back to the hotel.
Sweet dreams folks.
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