Joe's Last Day

Florence, Tues Jun 16

Tuesday marked Joe's last day before he had to go back to Lucerne to sell souvenirs. We made sure his last day was jam packed with sightseeing.

Started the day off at Florence's Accademia (I guess all Italian cities want to show off their sm-arts) By the looks of the building, you would never in a million years guess that Michelangelo's David statue was inside, but I digress. It was about 9:30 in the morning, and there was already a decent line ahead of us. A group of chatty Cathy's was ahead of us as well as an older guy dressed in slacks and a blazer -- he had professor written all over him. Later I saw him explaining some of the paintings as well as the illumination work to the ladies, so I think my guess was correct. We waited about 45 mins to an hour to get in. The first few rooms had some of the "typical church art" that we have become all too familiar with of late. We breezed through these rooms and quickly headed to the Michelangelo hall. This hall housed 4 of his Slaves and Prisoners -- works that he never completed. Some experts believe that Michelangelo intended for them to remain in this "unfinished" state -- as if the sculpture was still trapped in rock, trying to break free. The abdomens and torsos were essentially finished, but none of the limbs. In each you could get a sense of the power and grace he captured...even in rough form. At the end of the hall is his David, which stands at least 15ft tall, if not higher. The details can only be fully appreciated when viewed up close -- the veins in the biceps, the sling draped casually over his shoulder. As a student of anatomy, it is very interesting that he chose to oversize David's right hand. The explanation is that it shows the power he needed to overcome Goliath.

One of his unfinished works, the Palestrina Pieta also used this mismatched sizing -- the legs of Jesus are much smaller and weaker than his chest and arms. The description of this sculpture says that this work is now attributed to one of Michelangelo's students...but the mismatched features are consistent with what he did in David -- so I don't agree with the experts, Michelangelo carved this thing...or at least made the plans for it. And I must be right, because I have spent the last 3.5 weeks studying the fine arts. Ha. Who knows...

Lets see...what else was in the Accademia... There was an entire room filled with plaster casts of busts by some artist I can't remember and there were also works by New York photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. His photos were generally of the human form in various poses, and his works were displayed next to the Michelangelo works, as well as in an entire separate gallery. Interesting as a sort of compliment and contrast at the same time....but I wasn't particularly there for modern art.

After exiting, we grabbed some paninis at a small grocery store and walked over towards the small square in front of the San Marco monastery. (I never figured out why it was called that, because they obviously didn't have his bones there.) Here we ate standing up while pigeons flocked around us and a homeless guy sat across from us drinking a beer and people-watching. I always wonder whether its actually a rich guy who just wants to chill out and see how people treat him for a few days. This guy looked legit though...but content, not asking for $$ like most. Guess he already had his beer, at least for the morning.

We popped into the San Marco (he's everywhere!!!) monastery that featured frescoes by Fra Angelico in the monk's cells as well as around the courtyard. A lot of the artwork was repetitive from cell to cell, but interesting in the respect that it was in the environment it was intended for, and it seemed to be tailored to whatever monk lived there. There was some artwork in a few galleries -- all church art that we have become numb to.

Next we made our way to the Santa Maria Cathedral, Giotto's Bell Tower and the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo. The Opera was the Cathedral's museum that had several statues by Donatello as well as Michelangelo's marble Pieta. Michelangelo actually carved the David statue in this building. I almost missed Donatello's most interesting work in the museum -- a dramatic and expressive Mary Magdalene -- actually quite scary looking! Much different than anything else I've seen. In the Pieta, Michelangelo gave Nicodemus his own facial features, check him out at the top. The description said that Michelangelo shattered the a piece of Madonna's elbow and part of Christ's leg when his tools hit an imperfection in the grain. He left the statue mutilated and unfinished. One of his students repaired the statue after his death. I wonder if he would have smoothed out this sculpture a little more if it hadn't shattered after making this much progress. Glad the David didn't shatter. Another interesting work was Madonna with the Glass Eye. Look closely. Can't remember who carved this one.


When we left the Museo di Opera we were into early afternoon...might even have been 4ish. There was no line for the Santa Maria cathedral so we went straight in. The interior of the cathedral was fairly stark -- I guess the sculptures in the museum once stood along the walls. The rather boring but large nave led to an impressive dome. The dome was elegantly painted with Jesus, Mary, numerous saints and angels, and what looked like a version of the last judgment -- hell at the bottom with souls in torture and heaven above, with Christ at the top. The very center was open to the sky.

Didn't stick around too long after taking photos. We headed to the bell tower and climbed to the top for a very impressive panoramic view of the entire city. I forget how many steps there were...but it was ALOT...broken up though by several platforms where you could stop and take pictures so it didn't seem as bad. The views were great -- we were almost directly level with the lazy folks who took the elevator to the top of the Cathedral.

Then we headed to our last stop of the day, the Uffizi. Our guide book said to get reservations a month in advance during peak season to avoid a 3 hr wait. I guess it wasn't peak season...or peak hours. We showed up around 4:30 or 5 and maybe waited 10 minutes and we were in. Now...this museum is no joke. It has masterpiece after masterpiece in it. So many great pieces that Joe and I ran out of time and had to blow through the entire 1st level, looking at one or two paintings a room (the tour starts on 2nd level). We lost Kevin in the first two or three galleries where the tour groups were the most annoying. Lets see, some highlights: Boticelli's Birth of Venus, Titian's Venus of Urbino, a few unimpressive Rembrandt self-portraits, Raphael's Pope Leo X, and da Vinci's Annunciation.

After heading back to the Mama Lucia room to regroup & refresh, we went back to the same area as the night before for dinner. Chose a different restaurant. We scaled our meals down a little from the night before. I had a mixed salad and I think spaghetti with meat sauce, but I could be remembering wrong. I remember thinking that I like to evaluate Italian restaurants based on their basic spaghetti...but maybe I ordered something else. Its all running together. Good food though! Afterwards we picked up Joe's last gelato (unless he got some at the airport) and headed back for sleep around 10:45.

See...in Italy, dinner is considered "going out" because a meal done right takes several hours, which ours did! So for those of you who are thinking we didn't do anything at night, sitting outdoors on a square for dinner WAS going out!