Dia Quattordici …Uffizi, David and Medieval Surprizes

So there is the David copy in Piazza della Signoria and the real David in
the Galleria dell' Accademia, this pink and yellow David is in the interior courtyard of
the Accademia and to me show a sense of humour I am not sure all the academics will appreciate!
PS, it is the same huge size as the real one.

Clocks were set today to get us to the Uffizi for our 10:30 admission time. Fortunately it didn’t turn into the experience we had at the Vatican, this time the doors to convert reservation forms to tickets were easy to find. We are forever grateful for the books that advised to reserve museum tickets ahead of time. The lines to buy them are long and waiting in line is not something either of us do well. There will only be a few pictures taken inside the museum, because they all had to be snuck between extremely vigilant gallery security guards, and again – I don’t use flash, so I am not damaging any artifacts!

Touring this museum is like one giant art history class – well, Pre-Renaissance (mostly Gothis, I think) and Renaissance art, anyway. In the first rooms, all the paintings were religious themes, and sculpture was fully representational – just trying to capture the person’s likeness. At least the sculpture had a three dimensional aspect, the paintings were often flat and without perspective. The proportions of people were often flawed, and clearly artists were currying favour with their patrons because there were a lot of baby Jesus likenesses who looked like little, pudgy, middle aged, Italian men! Also, everyone was serious and sullen looking. In the whole museum, we saw only two still life paintings and three works with people smiling and actually seeming to enjoy themselves.

There were rooms dedicated to Leonardo (as painter) and Michelangelo, along with Caravaggio, Raphael, and a whole host of others. Clearly as these masters introduced perspective and proportion, the Renaissance was born and painting became so much stronger and could do realism well...which has lead to not having to do it at all, but that is another museum on another day.

On the second floor (Piano Dua) of the museum, a wide corridor, with a beamed and heavily painted ceiling contains exits to the exhibition rooms. There is natural light and sculpture lines both walls at about 10 foot intervals. We know that this is part of a corridor about a kilometre long that, at one point, leaves the Uffizi and goes over the Ponte Vecchio on an upper level and along to the Pitti Palace. It was built so the Medici’s and their guests could move from one palace to another without going to the street! Kind of like Calgary's +15s!

The museum does not allow photos, so you will see a couple of "stolen" ones (so much sweeter -- and I have to say that pictures are the only things I steal -- well, there were those A&W mugs when I was a teen, but you get my drift!)

After the museum we walked more of “downtown” Florence where everything is ancient and a little grimy. We stop for lunch at a little Mom & Pop spot and I have a great panini with spinach and ricotta. The bread is more like pastry, oh yum. We pay the cheaper price, so we do not have a table to eat it at, but have discovered that perching on the steps of buildings, in the shade, is preferable to a table in the sun when it is 30° plus.

We have 3:30 reservations at the Galleria dell’ Accademia to see the real David and a few other works they house.

We find the central market and explore it. I enjoy the stalls of leather, weaving and a variety of goods, not stopping, just savouring. Then we spot the enclosed market and Dennis is in heaven. He loves food and can spend hours in grocery stores the way I can spend hours in art galleries. He is fascinated. They have cocks with their feathers off, but their heads on! Suckling pig stuffed and chopped in half :-( , dried every kind of mushroom, tomato and herb…and enough pasta, in many shapes and colours to feed the city. It’s pretty interesting. I wish I could sample all the cheeses, but I would add back more than the 15 pounds I lost before I left home!

Time to tour the Accademia. David is awesome and installed in a perfect location with benches all around so you can sit and reflect on this stunning and huge work. How did Michelangelo ever "see" him inside the marble and carve him to such exacting standards when he is about three-times life sized (17 feet tall). Other exhibits are interesting, but as we leave there is a courtyard by the bookstore with another “cast” of David painted a florid pink with yellow hair outside in a courtyard. So great that they gave permission for this “Andy Warhol-esque” version – not something I really would have expected.

My back is giving me a hard time, but we decide to walk toward a fort we see on the map. A few blocks up the street we hear drums, or construction, not sure which. As we get closer it is clearly drums, and then we see flags spun in the air – bright yellow and red ones – by guys in medieval dress! We have stumbled across a Medieval Fair in a piazza and the entertainment is just starting. Fun. There are booths selling sword replicas and old-fashioned jewellery, a display by a falconer, another display of jousting and swordplay – and someone selling beer. How civilized.

We have breakfast for supper. Omelets are often on menus here, and it makes a nice break from pasta and pizza, which I have to say is losing a lot of caché for me because ut has been so mediocre .

After dropping things at the apartment, we go out for gelato and take it to the Ponte Vecchio where the sun is about an hour from setting.  Tonight, my gelato is Tiramisu flavour and yummy.

Dennis discovered interesting facts about the church bells we hear here in Florence, which ring at different times than they did in Venice. Here, from the Duomo they ring at 9:00, 11:30, 12:00, then one hour before sunset, at sunset, and one hour after sunset. The 11:30 bell was initiated by Brunelleschi when building the Duomo’s dome, so that no mortar would be mixed in the half hour before the lunch break. It is an interesting way to solve the problem of hardening mortar. Must have been a communication challenge to get that message out! On the other end of the time scale I can hear mothers today saying, “You be home by the sunset bell,” the way ours used to say, “Come home when the streetlights come on.”