Italy, Day 3: Florentine Art
Margo had made reservations for us today at the city's two best-known galleries. Making reservations is the way to go: at both galleries we saw lines wrapping around the building for non-reserved museumgoers, a fate we were glad to avoid in the potent Tuscan sun.
We started with a 9:30 reservation at the Galleria degli Uffizi. It houses the collection of the Medici family, the famous patrons of art. Its best-known piece is likely Botticelli's Birth of Venus, though it also contains works by Perugino, Leonardo da Vinci, Piero di Cosimo, Rafaello and Caravaggio.
Photographs were not allowed in the galleries, but I managed to get a few in the hallways.
The gallery is a U-shape with the bulk of the collection on the first (upstairs) floor. The hallways featured grotesques in the ceilings, and because of the gallery's location on the River Arno and adjacent to the Piazza della Signorina, featured great views.
On the way out, we passed the standard gift shop that you'd expect. Then another - a bookstore - and getting quite ridiculous when we saw the room of museum-themed scarves from Salvatore Ferragamo.
We were quite exhausted at the end of our time there. It's frustrating to know that you're seeing so many important works but not have the time and energy to take them in properly.
We went hunting for lunch. I wanted to find another cheap, authentic place, but Sarah and Margo were tired and would have eaten me if I'd stalled much longer, so we compromised and ate at a cafe on a side street from the plaza. (Eating right on the plazas is the most touristy - more expensive and often lesser quality.) We'd known we'd pay more for seating - it's cheaper to eat at the bar, sometimes by half or more - but of course we were tired. But we learned a lesson - we saw a bench built into the wall we could have used instead; look for this first before ordering.
We retired to our room to unwind a bit. Seeing so much Italian art was starting to affect my posture.
I did some yoga stretches, Sarah watched anime on MTV Europe and Margo read a mystery paperback.
We had a 3 pm reservation for our next museum, so we rallied beforehand in time to get some gelato en route. Then we endured the reservation queue for the Galleria dell' Accademia.
The Accademia is comparatively small, with just a few rooms, but its biggest draw is Michaelangelo's David.
We gazed at him for a bit. Then we took a seat on one of the benches built into the semi-circle behind him. From there we got to study his bum. You don't see many photos of David's bum, although I was disappointed this was exactly the case as Margo bought a postcard of it later on. But, in case you were wondering, the sling that David's holding in his left hand goes from his left shoulder around his back down to his right hand, which is holding the ball he's about to slay Goliath with. And Margo and I noticed that, from one angle, his face looks worried, but from straight on, it looks more determined.
The hall leading to David also contained six sculptures of Michaelangelo's that were unfinished.
We'd seen so much Italian painting by this point that I'd started to notice a few things.
Most art from that period is Christian - apparently it was quite sacriligeous to paint anything else at the time. I noticed the haloes changed, from dazzling golden spokes (often gilded) in medieval paintings, to minimalist, laser-like rings, to golden and sometimes red wheels-within-wheels resembling a movie film reel. I also noticed that much of it - faces, poses - looks familiar, as if I'd seen it before, and perhaps I had, but since the subjects were so common and so copied, perhaps that is to be expected. Most art of the period is of just a few subjects: the Madonna and child; the annunciation of the Magi; the ascencion; a few others, and some key mythological moments like Leta and the swan.
Sarah could hardly stand the time we spent there and was glad to be finished. We sat in a courtyard off the gift shop for a few minutes and Sarah was glad to scowl for me.
Back at our room, we chilled a bit. I decided to go for a walk again, taking in the central market (closed, but the nearby streets were lined with stalls of dishes, leather goods, knockoff sunglasses and jewelry, and other touristy trappings), and then the shopping streets including storefronts by Aramani, Gucci, Pucci, Dolce e Gabbana, and Prada. I took more pictures of the streets.
For dinner, we went to the recommended trattoria Za-Za. We got another litre of house red. For antipasti, Margo and I shared ham with soft cheese and warm rolls. Sarah had penne pomodoro - another tasty sauce! Margo had a soup sampler and a tripe made the Florentine way. I had risotto alla pescatore (seafood) and spinaci with garlic and olive oil. My risotto was great, with big chunks of seafood. Margo offered me some of her tripe, promising not to tell me what it was until after I tried it. My first guess was intestinal lining. Right!, she said. Almost - it's stomach lining.
Sarah was being silly again and started singing a song she'd made up. I was already taking notes in my notepad, and she saw this and offered to write down her lyrics. So here they are, as much as I can make them out (with misspellings corrected):
I am a rock
I don't eat any food
I nearly died on Monday
I live in a rock
I don't have anything
I eat (unintelligible)
I would like to bother Dad 'cos you were not letting me bother him
For dolci, I had a sorbetto de limono (sorbet with lemon liqueur) and Margo had cantucci (three different biscotti with Vincanto - a sherry-like drink).
Sarah went to sleep excited in the knowledge that the Easter Bunny would pay a visit overnight ...
We started with a 9:30 reservation at the Galleria degli Uffizi. It houses the collection of the Medici family, the famous patrons of art. Its best-known piece is likely Botticelli's Birth of Venus, though it also contains works by Perugino, Leonardo da Vinci, Piero di Cosimo, Rafaello and Caravaggio.
Photographs were not allowed in the galleries, but I managed to get a few in the hallways.
The gallery is a U-shape with the bulk of the collection on the first (upstairs) floor. The hallways featured grotesques in the ceilings, and because of the gallery's location on the River Arno and adjacent to the Piazza della Signorina, featured great views.
On the way out, we passed the standard gift shop that you'd expect. Then another - a bookstore - and getting quite ridiculous when we saw the room of museum-themed scarves from Salvatore Ferragamo.
We were quite exhausted at the end of our time there. It's frustrating to know that you're seeing so many important works but not have the time and energy to take them in properly.
We went hunting for lunch. I wanted to find another cheap, authentic place, but Sarah and Margo were tired and would have eaten me if I'd stalled much longer, so we compromised and ate at a cafe on a side street from the plaza. (Eating right on the plazas is the most touristy - more expensive and often lesser quality.) We'd known we'd pay more for seating - it's cheaper to eat at the bar, sometimes by half or more - but of course we were tired. But we learned a lesson - we saw a bench built into the wall we could have used instead; look for this first before ordering.
We retired to our room to unwind a bit. Seeing so much Italian art was starting to affect my posture.
I did some yoga stretches, Sarah watched anime on MTV Europe and Margo read a mystery paperback.
We had a 3 pm reservation for our next museum, so we rallied beforehand in time to get some gelato en route. Then we endured the reservation queue for the Galleria dell' Accademia.
The Accademia is comparatively small, with just a few rooms, but its biggest draw is Michaelangelo's David.
We gazed at him for a bit. Then we took a seat on one of the benches built into the semi-circle behind him. From there we got to study his bum. You don't see many photos of David's bum, although I was disappointed this was exactly the case as Margo bought a postcard of it later on. But, in case you were wondering, the sling that David's holding in his left hand goes from his left shoulder around his back down to his right hand, which is holding the ball he's about to slay Goliath with. And Margo and I noticed that, from one angle, his face looks worried, but from straight on, it looks more determined.
The hall leading to David also contained six sculptures of Michaelangelo's that were unfinished.
We'd seen so much Italian painting by this point that I'd started to notice a few things.
Most art from that period is Christian - apparently it was quite sacriligeous to paint anything else at the time. I noticed the haloes changed, from dazzling golden spokes (often gilded) in medieval paintings, to minimalist, laser-like rings, to golden and sometimes red wheels-within-wheels resembling a movie film reel. I also noticed that much of it - faces, poses - looks familiar, as if I'd seen it before, and perhaps I had, but since the subjects were so common and so copied, perhaps that is to be expected. Most art of the period is of just a few subjects: the Madonna and child; the annunciation of the Magi; the ascencion; a few others, and some key mythological moments like Leta and the swan.
Sarah could hardly stand the time we spent there and was glad to be finished. We sat in a courtyard off the gift shop for a few minutes and Sarah was glad to scowl for me.
Back at our room, we chilled a bit. I decided to go for a walk again, taking in the central market (closed, but the nearby streets were lined with stalls of dishes, leather goods, knockoff sunglasses and jewelry, and other touristy trappings), and then the shopping streets including storefronts by Aramani, Gucci, Pucci, Dolce e Gabbana, and Prada. I took more pictures of the streets.
For dinner, we went to the recommended trattoria Za-Za. We got another litre of house red. For antipasti, Margo and I shared ham with soft cheese and warm rolls. Sarah had penne pomodoro - another tasty sauce! Margo had a soup sampler and a tripe made the Florentine way. I had risotto alla pescatore (seafood) and spinaci with garlic and olive oil. My risotto was great, with big chunks of seafood. Margo offered me some of her tripe, promising not to tell me what it was until after I tried it. My first guess was intestinal lining. Right!, she said. Almost - it's stomach lining.
Sarah was being silly again and started singing a song she'd made up. I was already taking notes in my notepad, and she saw this and offered to write down her lyrics. So here they are, as much as I can make them out (with misspellings corrected):
I am a rock
I don't eat any food
I nearly died on Monday
I live in a rock
I don't have anything
I eat (unintelligible)
I would like to bother Dad 'cos you were not letting me bother him
For dolci, I had a sorbetto de limono (sorbet with lemon liqueur) and Margo had cantucci (three different biscotti with Vincanto - a sherry-like drink).
Sarah went to sleep excited in the knowledge that the Easter Bunny would pay a visit overnight ...
posted by Michael Nelson at 1:18 pm
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