Day 42: Florence and the Uffizi

I’m very excited this morning as we are going to the Uffizi. But I’m a bit annoyed too as I had sussed out that I got scammed on the tickets.
To see the Uffizi, you want to grab the tickets beforehand to avoid the long queues. I’d seen the queues for the Accademia so was glad that I had booked them online. But googling brings up www.uffizi.com, which you would think is the official site. It isn’t. The official site is www.polomuseale.firenze.it. This meant that I ended up paying this tricky booking site 10 euro more than if I had gone to the correct site. Not a big deal, but I was annoyed with myself for getting mislead. To make matters worse, now I was also a little concerned if I would be able to get in showing the voucher on my phone, as there was no way to print it. So I decided it was best to head down early in case of any problems.
My worries were for nothing as it all went smoothly; I passed my phone through the counter and received proper tickets (and my phone) back no hassles at all.
The Uffizi Gallery is extremely high on the wow factor. I loved this place. So much art. We were in there for some 4 hours, and it still felt a little rushed. And Birth of Venus! Birth of Venus just sent chills through me. It’s truly a beautiful painting. I just loved the Botticelli’s and the Lippi’s with a passion. The faces they paint are simply beauty captured on canvas. Botticelli’s La Primavera, and Annunciation; Lippi’s Madonna with Child and Two Angels were favourites, as was Gerard van Honthorst’s Adoration of the Child.
The rest of the art in there is also truly amazing. A huge collection of altar pieces and religious art. I rename the museum the Madonna with Child, the Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian and the House of Penises, as they were the predominate themes running throughout the gallery. The later envisioned through sculpture rather than painting. Ta;ling of the sculptures, they were amazing too; a favourite would be Sleeping Ariadne. The way that the marble was carved in such detail, including the folds of cloth.

After the Uffizi, and a really delish sausage lunch, we visited the Duomo on the inside. This place is huge, and surprisingly quite austere. Hardly any art at all that I can recall seeing. But the crypt was an experience. Just like I always imagine a crypt under a church to be like. Spooky and creepy, the church was basically built over the top of previous churches with ruins and the remains of Roman walls and floor mosaics still visible beneath.

Michelle had now returned to the apartment following the  basilica visit, so I then climbed to the top of Gioto’s Tower. Steep narrow steps go up and up following the exterior of the tower, the ascending having to squeeze past the constant stream of people coming back down. First landing attained, then up again through ever narrowing stairs. Second landing, and up again. Third landing then a short stair to the top; an enclosed balustrade around the tower with views across all of Venice, and the Duomo at eye level. I’ll have to give the Duomo a climb tomorrow, after the morning Accademia Gallery visit.

I then visited the Baptistry. On the outside it was completely covered in scaffolding. On the inside, a glittering jewel with the most unbelievable golden painted ceilings. Amazing.  I think I'm saying amazing, quite a lot...

In the evening we wandered up past the Firenze University looking for a dinner spot, but ended up back near the Duomo. Dinner was OK, but I’m really starting to feel how expensive the meals are, and not really the best value. Despite trying to avoid the obvious tourist places, dinners are still averaging about 70 Euro. I had a quite nice pasta with truffles and sausage, and a lovely fresh pizza of spinach leaves, tomato and mozzarella on a white pizza (no tomato sauce). But from that point the meal went downhill as the desserts were very average. Not a lot to choose from for desserts either, basically tiramisu which the one here was not much more than cream, and crème caramel, which was quite bad really. Coffees were also only just OK. What’s going on, this is Italy!?!
Again tonight after dinner we went walking around the old town. I just love walking these streets at night. This evening there was a guy playing guitar and singing Frank Sinatra and Italian songs down at the Ponte Vecchio. I could do this forever. There were even more guitarists and buskers in the nearby streets, and at the Piazza della Signoria another guitarist was singing. Crowds were lining up to rub Porcellino on the snout again, a constant never ending ritual. It’s a wonder he has any snout left at all!

Moar Pics!