Finally seeing some of what Florence is famous for (other than food)

The penultimate installment, written by Laura. Continued from days five and six.

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We had already secured Friday afternoon reservations to the Uffizi, which would allow us to skip the horrendous looking lines for the museum. But Friday morning was clear, and we decided to see if we could get in without reservations at the Accademia, which houses Michelangelo's David.

We managed to eat breakfast and head out fairly early and then walk the 3 blocks from our hotel to the museum. Arriving at the front of the museum only 15 minutes after it had opened we saw a line with 30 people in it and thought we were doing OK. Then we found out that those 30 people were part of a tour group and we didn't have to wait in line at all. Woo Hoo!

We sailed in and made our way straight toward David. Wow! Standing 14 feet high, the sculpture is very literally "larger than life" and my only two words for it are "beauty" and "perfection". I cannot even imagine the skill and artistry it would take to carve something like that from stone. I had been seeing the copy of David which stands outside the Palazzo Vecchio all week, but the original was much much more impressive somehow. We then headed off to see the other works of Michelangelo's that are housed at the Accademia. His series called "Prisoners" are unfinished sculptures that depict human forms seeming to struggle against the rock that imprisons them (I can't find any pictures on the web that even begin to do them justice). We walked around and looked at some of the paintings, but the definite centerpieces of the museum are the works by Michelangelo.

We were considering leaving (Samuel had begun to get antsy) when we noticed a temporary display dealing with 18th century music. No one was in this display at all, and it was a longish walk from the main exhibits down a rather empty corridor. We didn't spend long ourselves, but it was highly worth the walk. A few Stradivarius violins, a group of early clarinets, and trombones were fun to see. Matt has played both the clarinet and trombone so seeing those was interesting to him.

We got lunch-like food from the Market again, this time finding some tasty tangerines and enjoying some wonderful gorgonzola. We ate back at our room and got Samuel down for a nap, so that he would wake in time for our reservations to the Uffizi.

When Samuel woke up, we set off in the direction of the Uffizi. We had plenty of time, so we decided to get some new toys for Samuel that might help to keep him entertained while we toured the museum. I had read the Uffizi tour in our guidebook to Florence 4 times by now and was really looking forward to seeing the artwork there. But I was apprehensive, somehow Samuel didn't seem quite art museum compatible.

We stopped at large bookstore down the street from our hotel and headed to the children's section. Its pretty amusing to see Garfield and Calvin and Hobbes comic books in Italian. I liked the cover art on the Italian version of Harry Potter. We found some board books with lots of nice photographs for Samuel. One was entitled Animali and the other Colori. We purchased those and a small puzzle (to save for the plane ride home) and set off again.

We fed Samuel lots of snack before entering the museum and then just hoped for the best. Three steps into the first room containing pre-Renaissance artwork, Samuel looked about and started to yell at the top of his lungs. We tried showing him books and toys but nothing helped. We sped through the room and he was still yelling. Out in the hall again, Matt offered to let Samuel roam around while I looked at artwork. So Matt and Samuel staked out a bench in the Hall of Statues and I started to wander through the next series of rooms.

It was a joy to be able to linger among the paintings of Botticelli. My personal interest in Botticelli stems from the fact that my type of curly hair can be described as "Botticelli curls" (looser open curls instead of tight spirals). Botticelli did love to paint curly hair (in this picture Mary and all the angels have curls), and as I looked closely at one of his paintings where he included a self portrait, I saw that he had curly hair himself.

I also enjoyed paintings by Agnolo Bronzino. The portraits by Bronzino drew my attention even thoughtI knew nothing about the artist, the people just looked so real. And it is amazing to be able to gaze at even the lesser paintings of Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci.

I took my turn sitting with Samuel while Matt headed off to enjoy the artwork. Samuel and I read his new books, organized my wallet, played hide and seek behind a trash can, and were entertained by a group of Italian high school kids who were "oh so bored by all this artwork". Samuel never seemed to mind being surrounded by a group of girls who were all patting his head and calling him "bello" -- as long as he could see me, that is. We spent almost 3 hours at the Uffizi, and left rather exhausted.

Dinner was at the tasty little sandwich shop, and then we put Samuel to bed and Matt headed out for more gelato. Yum yum!

Saturday was our last sightseeing day, We spent the morning at San Marco, a monastery filled with beautiful frescos painted by Fra Angelico. We saw most of the artwork solo while the other one of us watched Samuel play in the courtyard. The afternoon was spent walking around, snapping those last pictures we just had to have, and eating gelato. There is a bit of sadness when you realize you are leaving a place and you haven't even begun to see so much of what is there. But I consoled myself with gelato and the knowledge that I had seen so much more than I would have if I had stayed home.

We felt we just had to have a fancier dinner on our last night in Florence (pizza by the etto just wouldn't do). After much wandering around and seeing that most restaurants wouldn't be opening until after Samuel's bedtime we found ourselves back at Za Za's. This time the service was good and the food was even better. We were surrounded by other American tourists who were telling us how brave we were for traveling with Samuel. All of Samuel's favorite waitresses from the last time we were there, were stopping by the table to pinch his cheeks. At the end of the meal Samuel even let one of the waitress hold him. He ate lots of all our food and enjoyed himself hugely.

After our nightly gelato treat, we all settled down to sleep in anticipation of our very early wake-up call and departure the next morning. 

Posted by Matt on 4/19/2005 01:03:00 AM