FLORENCE
Friends, Romans, countrymen...
I have seen the holy grail.
I've been to Florence.
I've seen the Uffizi museum and the Pitti palace. I've visited Eleonora di Toledo's apartments and chapel in Palazzo Vecchio. I've crossed Ponte Vecchio. I've seen the Medici "wunderkammer". I've seen the portraits of Eleonora di Toledo, Maddalena Strozzi Doni, Lucrezia Panciatichi, Maria de Medici, Donna Gravida, La Bella and God-knows-who. I've seen Botticelli's "Birth of Venus" and "Primavera", Tiziano's "Venus of Urbino", Parmigianino's "Madonna with the long neck" and Michelangelo's "David". I've walked the streets of Florence. I've visited it's churches. I've stood on the spot where Savornarola was burned. I've seen so much beauty I'm not sure my eyes and my mind could take it all in.
If life has more to offer, I'm not sure I need to know.
Bronzino's "Christ in Limbo" from ca. 1552. Le major wow! And possibly with a portrait of Eleonora di Toledo (left) and Constanza da Sommaia (right) in it, more about that later.