Florence II

There are many museums to visit in Florence with the two biggest being the Uffizi and the Pitti Palace. They are both listed under the Uffizi galleries, along with the Boboli gardens. There are the 3 that I chose to look into.

The Uffizi has Michaelangelo’s David, a well known masterpiece. However, after passing a multitude of souvenir vendors with neon colored David replicas and soccer shorts with pictures of David’s family jewels, I was pretty much over him.

Botticelli’s Birth of Venus was worth the price of admission all on her own. It is just amazing, another one of those times I had to pick my jaw up off the floor.

There was another artist’s version of Venus and I wish I had written his name down. It is remarkable as it is just Venus lying down, nothing to distract, no hidden meaning, no inferences to be made. It’s just beautiful in it’s simplicity.

Nothing else at the Uffizi really rocked my socks. However, the Pitti Palace was another story. On the main floor are the public rooms where the royals would hold court with the public. The first one has a fresco on the ceiling that details their marriage. It is just gorgeous. There are two long benches so you can sit back and just gaze upward. The walls of two of the rooms are painted to look like the rooms extends much further on. Took me awhile to figure out what was real and what wasn’t, they were that well done! There are all these characters sitting up on the walls too, one of the artists even inserted himself up there.

Also on the ground floor were some of the treasures of the Grand Dukes. There was this large music box/clock that would play different songs at different hours of the day. The fact that it was created over 500 years ago blows me away.

Next floor up was the modern art gallery with works from the late 1800’s to the 1930’s. The range of artists is amazing. You could also go from gallery to gallery with just a few people around you.

Behind the palace are the Boboli Gardens, a different type of artwork

When I walked up to the grotto in the garden, the gate was open and a man was inside talking on the phone. I walked past him and looked around taking pictures. After I left he did too, and locked the gate. I guess timing is everything, just act like you should be there!

There were statues on the wall as well as frescoes and everything had a little bit of growth on it, am guessing limestone from the moisture. I think you should be able to make out the frescoes:

There were actually two rooms, front and back. The above one is from the back.

The outside didn’t lack for decoration either:

I enjoyed the rest of the garden as well. It goes up and down a hill, of course. It has new art mixed in with the ancient works:

This is the Neptune statute. You an see an example of the modern art behind him.

Above is the central path that runs down the middle of the garden, following are various side paths, fountains and specialty gardens.

I spent one day just wandering around and taking photos. Some of them you saw in Part I, here are some more:

As you walk along the Uffizi side of the river you can see the promontory up on the hill. This is the Piazelle Michaelangelo. It is a pretty walk to get up there and from there you get a great view of the city.

This shows you the scale of the Duomo.

This is another view of the city with the St. Croce across the river. The Porto St Niccolo is the tower on the right, it is one of the remaining towers of the Roman wall that encircled Florence in Roman times]

This shows some of the remaining wall on the hillside.

This is just a view of some of the homes on the hillside, they have a great view of the city!

Finally, a better shot of St. Croce. Didn’t get a chance to visit it but I like the way it looks.

Next stop, Milan.