We spent 5+ hours today looking at some of the most magnificent art of the Italian Renaissance, and More. We toured through the Gallerie dell’Accademia di Firenze and the Gallerie degli Uffizi. It was so much, so very much. Our guide was wonderful, it was a special pleasure to hear her tell of the times, of art history, the whole ball of wax.
I’m going to write very little because if you’re going to come to Florence you’re going to have to look it all up anyway.
So, the Accademia = Michelangelo’s David. There were also rooms of gorgeous golden iconography from the 1200s forward.
The Uffizi is something else again, so huge and so full of pictures you’ve seen all your life. Seeing in person these objects you’ve know for so long, the size, the colors, the intent, it’s a powerful experience. For example our guide led us to the exact spot where you could look straight ahead and see Botticelli’s Spring and turn to the right, BAM, his Birth of Venus. There’s da Vinci, Caravaggio, and more and more.
Here are just a few random pictures.
Our guide talked about all the sculpture here and then led us to the front where we had all the time up-close that anyone wanted.
That’s Ponte Vecchio in the foreground, the covered bridge, from a dirty window at the Uffizi.
The Duomo complex, the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore. I made this from internet pictures because for me it was impossible to get a sense of scale from the ground.
A street scene.
At the end of this long day of walking, shuffling through the galleries, standing in front of pictures, we hopped a pedicab for the half mile drive home.
