September 30: Visting the famed city of Florence
Our group started off after a hearty breakfast. The bus was ready outside the Cortefreda. The sky was blue. We had gotten up early to see the sunrise among the Tuscan hills at the back of our lodgings. It was indeed a glorious morning. Our itinerary for the day was already set, visit David's Statue and then walk through the Uffizi museum. Even for these visits, the time was too short considering the enormous crowd we anticipated.
It takes just under 45 minutes to drive from our Hotel Borgo di Cortefreda to Florence. It was a delightful drive and we drove right near to the Piazzale Michelangelo on the Florentine hills.
The whole piazza was designed to display Michelangelo's works but that project never took off. However, a bronze copy of Michelangelo's David is centrally placed in the Piazza.
Fortunately for us, we had visited Florence earlier and covered the Duomo of Santa Maria del Fiore. We even climbed part of the way to Cupola designed by Filippo Brunelleschi and commissioned in 1418 (Michiko stopped part of the way due to claustrophobia). The sight from Piazzale Michelangelo is unforgettable.
We had also visited Accademia Gallery to gaze at Michaelangelo's David. Most from our group visited lined up to visit David. There was an enormous crowd milling around the rather narrow street at its entrance.
On our previous visit, we were even planning to go up to the Piazzale de Michaelangelo but I got terribly sick after eating something that did not agree with me and returned to the USA by the next available flight. The hotel we stayed at was also something I would like to forget, but I had chosen it against Michiko's remonstrations just because it was named the Hotel Machiavelli Palace. You see, I am a great fan of The Prince. Being a romantic has a downside! Perhaps in the intervening years, the hotel has improved.
We decided to skip the Accademia Gallery and had planned to visit an art supply house, Zeccchi in the vicinity of the Duomo and have lunch before joining others to visit the Uffizi.
After lunch, we met our group at the Piazza del Senhoria. People of all hues and colors were milling around and it was so crowded that we thought we may miss them. However, at the appointed time around 2 PM, we did find them.
Uffizi is under construction and since we had a group ticket, we did not have to get behind a queue. Some of the things that attracted me at the entrance were the contributions of the Medici family to Florence, not only the birthplace of the Renaissance but also, in fact, a major part of the contributor to the western civilization.
We went through corridors after corridors of painting, sculpture, and art objects of various kinds. We were interested in seeing Sandro Botticelli's La Primavera (1470). It was a large rectangular painting with Venus with the tilted head in the middle accompanied by the Three Graces on the left dancing to some mystic music. It was crowded but we could stand there and gaze interrupted by bobbing heads.
The' Birth of Venus' was one of the other masterpieces of Botticelli which we did not miss. This is one of the most enduring and the most famous works of Botticelli.
Of course, we did not miss the other Venus, the 'Venus of Urbino', an oil painting by Titian (Tiziano Vecellio).
Sando Botticelli also painted the 'Adoration of the Magi' in which he included the members of the Medici family, his sponsors. Botticelli himself is also in the painting on the extreme right. Well, most artists painted the 'Adoration of Magi', another enduring Catholic theme.
Here is the same theme by Michelangelo.
This one from Gentile de Fabrini.
Extras
Ponte Vecchio behind the museum and many more bridges across the river.
Uffizi Museum corridor.
Altarpiece of three saints by Antonio Pollaiolo (1466-1467) L to R: St.Vincent, St. James and St. Eustace bridges across the river.
We finished walking through Uffizi by about 4:30 or so. We had to wait for others to come back before we go back to our hotel. We thought of buying some leather goods near the Pizza de Santa Croce. There are various shops and restaurants around this Piazza. We did not find them very appealing.
Few others from our group were sitting in the sidewalk restaurant and drinking Spritz (Aperol, Blood Orange Juice and Prosecco ) and they recommended me to try. It was really refreshing.
Pizza de Santa Croce is another historic landmark with the basilica and the statue of Dante very near its entrance. It also has the remains of Michelangelo in one of the tombs. Frankly speaking, it was a little too much after a whole day of walking. We did not go in, perhaps some from our group did.
It is arrivederci time for Tuscany and Florence. Tomorrow we will go on to savor a new experience that we missed out on our failed visit to Florence. We will visit Venice, another famed city which transacted business with the far east and India. On the way, we will have our taste of Tuscan wine in a winery, visit San Gimignano and cross the 'lagoon' to reach our destination.
We finally returned and took some rest. Well after that, a lot of drinking, talking and exchanging the highlights of the day. It was indeed a good day.
My videos of this visit are not ready yet. That's something on my plate.
Wine tasting in the Chianti region:
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