florence day 2
just a preview. more pics still to add.
a nice brekky at the hotel. you have to respect the idea of nutella for breakfast. the bed was comfy, the shower was hot (which you do wonder about in such an old place). we headed out for our big day of art, and i promtly fell and sprained my ankle. for those of you who love me long time, you'll know that i have a history of pretty nasty sprains. you know, those sprains that hurt worse than a break? i'm blessed that way. so, i just sat there on the street for a moment, while honey asked if i was ok, and this man just watched me from 2 feet away. i knew i wasn't ok. tj was asking about other parts of me, like me knee and shoulder, but the only thing that existed was my ankle, that somebody had stabbed with a hot knife. oh, but i'm in italy. finally in italy. watch me rise. kinda like a zombie.
sights about town
cameos at the spedale degli innocenti
tj and the duomo
tori spending money. no, tj liked the cash register
duomo pigeon
took a deep breath and headed off to galleria d'ell academia. really amazing. no pictures allowed. tj snuck some pics on her ipod, but we don't have the software on the netbook, so we'll have to wait til we get home to post that stuff. the david is really impressive. really. massive, meticulous, and really nice ass.
tori at the academia
overall, the academia was not very large, including a small painting gallery, the david gallery (which houses 6 unfinished pieces by michaelangelo, in addition to david), a gallery of plaster casts, which was really interesting, and a gallery of musicial instruments, which was rather amazing.
in the gallery of plaster casts, two favorites were one of a beautiful woman, lying on a chaise near death, and her son (5-8) sitting by here. the final statue was made to adorn the family mausoleum. the other was quite funny, of a woman standing with her arm around the shoulders of a bust on a pedestal.
the musical instruments were beautiful and strange, and mostly the property of lorenzo de medici, who loved music. the collection included a hurdy gurdy [SPELLING AND LINK], a precurser to the concertina and accordian.
we stopped at david cafe for lunch. pizza and spaghetti bolognese. and beer. such a cliche, the waiter was standing at the front of the outdoor seating, luring people in with cries of 'whiskey soda!' i think the italians just love saying the word 'whiskey.'
after lunch, tj went back to the room to get her ankle brace (she was having a weak ankle before we left, and always travels prepared), and the we headed to the uffizi.
the ceilings alone are worth the price of admission. each one different, each so beautiful and detailed and colorful. we used rick steves' podcast to wind our way through this massive building. the crowds were ridiculous, but we would jump in front of a painting in between tour groups, and the podcast helped create a barrier. i won't catalogue the endless art here, you can just see the website for that. i will say that there were 2 rare paintings by michaelangelo here, and one of them was in a frame that he designed. it is the ugliest ugliest thing i've ever seen. i will try to dig up a pic to link to.
there was an entire room of niobe, who was one of my favorite myths, and some amazing smaller statues that were made of 2 and 3 types and colors of stone, but which seemed to be carved from one piece. really impressive.
when we couldn't take another step, and had cricks in our necks from looking up, we headed to an elevator and ended up getting of on a wrong floor. we turned out of the elevator alcove to discover we were in a room holding a display that was roped off. and we were behind the rope. security was no amused. and she spoke no english. after making our escape, we freshened up at the hotel and headed out to dinner at the duomo for lasagna and spaghetti with panna cotta gelato for dessert.
a nice brekky at the hotel. you have to respect the idea of nutella for breakfast. the bed was comfy, the shower was hot (which you do wonder about in such an old place). we headed out for our big day of art, and i promtly fell and sprained my ankle. for those of you who love me long time, you'll know that i have a history of pretty nasty sprains. you know, those sprains that hurt worse than a break? i'm blessed that way. so, i just sat there on the street for a moment, while honey asked if i was ok, and this man just watched me from 2 feet away. i knew i wasn't ok. tj was asking about other parts of me, like me knee and shoulder, but the only thing that existed was my ankle, that somebody had stabbed with a hot knife. oh, but i'm in italy. finally in italy. watch me rise. kinda like a zombie.
sights about town
cameos at the spedale degli innocenti
tj and the duomo
tori spending money. no, tj liked the cash register
duomo pigeon
took a deep breath and headed off to galleria d'ell academia. really amazing. no pictures allowed. tj snuck some pics on her ipod, but we don't have the software on the netbook, so we'll have to wait til we get home to post that stuff. the david is really impressive. really. massive, meticulous, and really nice ass.
tori at the academia
overall, the academia was not very large, including a small painting gallery, the david gallery (which houses 6 unfinished pieces by michaelangelo, in addition to david), a gallery of plaster casts, which was really interesting, and a gallery of musicial instruments, which was rather amazing.
in the gallery of plaster casts, two favorites were one of a beautiful woman, lying on a chaise near death, and her son (5-8) sitting by here. the final statue was made to adorn the family mausoleum. the other was quite funny, of a woman standing with her arm around the shoulders of a bust on a pedestal.
the musical instruments were beautiful and strange, and mostly the property of lorenzo de medici, who loved music. the collection included a hurdy gurdy [SPELLING AND LINK], a precurser to the concertina and accordian.
we stopped at david cafe for lunch. pizza and spaghetti bolognese. and beer. such a cliche, the waiter was standing at the front of the outdoor seating, luring people in with cries of 'whiskey soda!' i think the italians just love saying the word 'whiskey.'
after lunch, tj went back to the room to get her ankle brace (she was having a weak ankle before we left, and always travels prepared), and the we headed to the uffizi.
the ceilings alone are worth the price of admission. each one different, each so beautiful and detailed and colorful. we used rick steves' podcast to wind our way through this massive building. the crowds were ridiculous, but we would jump in front of a painting in between tour groups, and the podcast helped create a barrier. i won't catalogue the endless art here, you can just see the website for that. i will say that there were 2 rare paintings by michaelangelo here, and one of them was in a frame that he designed. it is the ugliest ugliest thing i've ever seen. i will try to dig up a pic to link to.
there was an entire room of niobe, who was one of my favorite myths, and some amazing smaller statues that were made of 2 and 3 types and colors of stone, but which seemed to be carved from one piece. really impressive.
when we couldn't take another step, and had cricks in our necks from looking up, we headed to an elevator and ended up getting of on a wrong floor. we turned out of the elevator alcove to discover we were in a room holding a display that was roped off. and we were behind the rope. security was no amused. and she spoke no english. after making our escape, we freshened up at the hotel and headed out to dinner at the duomo for lasagna and spaghetti with panna cotta gelato for dessert.