Art Walk of Florence

We decided to make Tuesday our big art day, since most of the galleries are closed on Sunday and Monday here. We started out at the Uffizi, which is apparently always a bitch to get into thanks to it housing some of the most famous art from the Renaissance. Luckily, we had the foresight to purchase the Florence Card, which gets you into almost every museum in the city AND let's you cut to the front of the line. Even with this, it was still kind of a cluster to get in. Once inside, it was clear from watching the masses where the famous Michelangelo and Botticelli paintings were, so we decided to start with the statues and work our way back to that particular area of the Renaissance artwork. I personally enjoy statues more than paintings anyway - they just seem to be a more accessible and humanistic.

There is a very thorough collection of art in the pre/early- Renaissance section - quite a few Giotto's showing the beginnings of perspective and shading. When we finally got to the room with the Botticelli's, surprisingly it was not The Birth of Venus that was mobbed, but The Coming of Spring. When it comes to Renaissance art, I am a big fan of the classical, so I was happy to view these even amongst the crowds. The next room had Michelangelo's Madonna and Child, but we moved through there pretty quickly since there were multiple tour groups just camped out in front.

One of the most interesting sections to me was the tapestry room - the amount of work that went into these woven masterpieces is astonishing! Unfortunately, many are in desperate need of restoration, but the process is very expensive, and the museum needs to often spend that money on the higher traffic areas, so who knows how much longer these will be of displayable quality! Overall I would say the Uffizi is worth going to once... but unlike the Louvre or the Getty or even the Academia, I for one will probably never repeat that visit - just too many people!

For lunch we found a little restaurant close to our hotel where Ryan ordered Tuscan chicken with bacon in a wine sauce and I got a risotto with mozzarella in a meat sauce - a heartier risotto than I am used to, but pretty tasty. The chicken, on the other hand, was phenomenal - both stuffed with bacon AND with a piece of bacon on top. We ended up sharing our food so that I could enjoy some of that bacon goodness too!

After lunch we strolled over to the Academia, famous for housing Michelangelo's David. This is pretty much considered the major (and for some, the only) draw to this museum, but Ryan quickly steered me over to some of Michelangelo's unfinished statues, know as the Prisoners. These half finished giants seem like they are trying to fight their way out of the marble. They are almost sad to behold - they were not coming to life how Michelangelo foresaw them, so they were abandoned to be ever encased in their stone tombs. Definitely a must see.

On the way back to the hotel from the Academia, we decided to pop into the Palazzo Medici Riccardi, yet another Medici Palace once inhabited from the Medici family until they got tired of it. This museum was pretty interesting. It had a special exhibit showcasing an eclectic collection of items from various individual dealers and afficianados. It was interesting to see their favorite Florentine pieces from their different collections. We also visited the treasury rooms, which housed the usual opulent religious paraphernalia and art from the peak of the Medicis reign of power.

We decided to go back to the Il Grotto Guelfa restaurant that we visited our first night here. Ryan was determined to get the risotto he had there 10+ years prior, and so he did. I settled for the gnocchi alla Gorgonzola, then for dessert we shared Tuscan creme and I enjoyed a delicious espresso (decaf, of course). We then returned to our hotel, climbed the rickety stairs to the tower balcony, and enjoyed Florence at night under the stars while listening to the locals scream, "ole, ole, ole, ole!" (I think there was a soccer match going on). All in all, a long but pleasant day!