Day 79-80: Florence

There is not too much to talk about concerning Monday. It seems that at every museum and church in Florence we are requested not to take photographs so our documentation effort suffers. The following is the only photo we took:

*Arches under Il Passito

We started the day by trying to get a wifi connection outside the Galileo Museum. No luck.

We then headed towards Florence’s Market Building, the Mercato Centrale, and did a bit of grocery shopping and stocked up on olives. We next had to hurry to get to the Medici Chapels, since they were only open until 13:00.  The Chapels house the tombs of Florence’s governing family, the Medicis, featuring more sculpture and an entire room designed by Michelangelo. It is impressive, albeit a bit depressing.

When we wrapped up at the Chapels we went to lunch at a sandwich shop that our guidebook recommended. Turns out it is frequented by university aged American exchange students all talking about their Thanksgiving Day plans and which clubs to meet up at later. The sandwiches were good but it did not feel legitimately Italian. After lunch we stopped for our daily gelato break.

Next we struggled for a while to find an Internet café. Each time we arrived at an address our guidebook suggested we found the places were closed. We ended up finding a skeezy place with a slow connection, but it was enough to get the post for the last three days uploaded.

We wandered around town until dusk and then headed home for dinner.

We started Tuesday with coffee at our local café, run by Maurizio (a friend of our apartment owner) and stopped into the Santo Spirito Church in the nearby piazza to check out a crucifix that was made by a then 17 year old Michelangelo.

We continued onto the Bargello Museum, a minor gallery of sculpture and some early Renaissance artifacts. They didn’t allow photos inside, but they did have an outdoor courtyard with some interesting statues:

The museum contains four different versions of David: two by Donatello, one by Michelangelo (but not THE David), and one by Andrea del Verrocchio (Leonardo da Vinci’s mentor). The museum was enjoyable with many good pieces, but quite a few of the works highlighted by our guidebook were missing for restoration or on loan to other museums.

After finishing at the Bargello, we stopped by the Gucci Museum, which recently opened. Gucci, the luxury leather and clothing brand, was founded in Florence. The museum consisted of three floors of their finest wares, including travel bags, couture gowns, and sporting goods. Jackie was in heaven. She has decided that she is going to save a dollar a day until she can afford to buy one of her own Gucci bags. At that rate, she may not be able to get a bag for a few years.

We went for lunch at a cafeteria-style restaurant that in contrast to yesterday did feel authentically Italian. The guy scooping pasta was very friendly and even though we could not understand each other, he happily spoke at us the whole time we were in line. The food was good to boot. Again, we followed up lunch with a stop at our gelateria.

With all our days objectives checked off we were free to do a bit of shopping. We wandered through the city taking the following photos:

When we got to the river we saw an overlook up on the south side of the Arno River and we decided to  try and navigate our way up. It was worth it. We got some great photos of the sun setting on the city from the Piazzale Michelangelo:

Once it got sufficiently dark we climbed the hill a little further to visit a nearby church, which our guidebook recommends, San Miniato. The experience was a little unnerving. The church was nearly pitch black inside, with only a couple small lights near the altar. The organist was playing a dirge and when we were about to step up towards the alter a stoic looking priest dressed all in white robes appeared out of nowhere and slowly walked past.

After walking around the church a bit, we descended the hill and headed back towards our apartment for our last night in Florence. Tomorrow, we are off to Siena!