Woke up this morning to rain and it has rained all day with some serious thunder to boot. Not a very good day for photos, but we intend to go to Florence on Tuesday as well, so hope fully we can catch up with them then.
Caught the bus in to Florence and, after sitting in the Loggia della Signoria (an open air museum amidst fantastic marble statues) discussing which of the Art Museums that we wanted to see first, we headed around to the Uffizi which houses the ‘Birth of Venus’, but after standing in line for half an hour and discovering that we wouldn’t be passing through the entry doors for another four hours we decided to head somewhere else.
Went through the Bargello which had some very cool ‘portrait sculptures’ the highlight of which was Donatello’s statue of David. Unfortunately for us, this particular piece was away on display in Milan, so we didn’t get to see it. We went from here through to the Duomo ‘Cathederal of Florence’. Fantastic building well adorned inside with frescoes, and marble floors. The outside is a complete work of art.
We went back past the Uffizi to check out the queues and then proceeded over the Ponte Vecchio bridge with all it’s glitz and glamour of gold merchants stores. But as you walk along the Arno River and look back you wonder what all the fuss is about, as we both agreed that the bridge itself is really is quite ugly.
Started heading to the Galleria dell Accademia and stumbled upon this fantastic church which we still don’t know the name of. Fantastic interior. frescoes, paintings, dead bodies … in a lot of ways the interior was more elaborate then the Duomo. It is these little surprises that have really impressed us throughout our journey so far. I say ‘little’, but these ‘little surprises’ are really quite grand. We keep remarking to each other that these masterpieces hidden away in every nook and cranny of their respective cities, are someone’s local church. They really are impressive.
We ended the day by going through the Galleria dell Accademia. And this was for me the highlight of the day. We knew that Michelangelo’s ‘David’ was there, but nothing prepares you for the sight of it. You turn the corner, and there it is, and it is HUGE. I must be about 4m tall and it is very imposing, set upon it’s pedestal. When you think that Michelangelo completed this work on his own at 29 year’s old … WOW!
Heading home we rediscovered why we aren’t conducting our entire trip via public transport. Trying to find where the bus left from was quite a challenge. Put it this way, it wasn’t from where we thought. And by the time we found where we should have been, (a) we had missed the bus and had to wait an hour for the next one , and (b) it was just around the corner from where we had started our trek to try and find it. And so go the on-going adventures of Brendan and Justine :-)
Caught the bus in to Florence and, after sitting in the Loggia della Signoria (an open air museum amidst fantastic marble statues) discussing which of the Art Museums that we wanted to see first, we headed around to the Uffizi which houses the ‘Birth of Venus’, but after standing in line for half an hour and discovering that we wouldn’t be passing through the entry doors for another four hours we decided to head somewhere else.
Went through the Bargello which had some very cool ‘portrait sculptures’ the highlight of which was Donatello’s statue of David. Unfortunately for us, this particular piece was away on display in Milan, so we didn’t get to see it. We went from here through to the Duomo ‘Cathederal of Florence’. Fantastic building well adorned inside with frescoes, and marble floors. The outside is a complete work of art.
We went back past the Uffizi to check out the queues and then proceeded over the Ponte Vecchio bridge with all it’s glitz and glamour of gold merchants stores. But as you walk along the Arno River and look back you wonder what all the fuss is about, as we both agreed that the bridge itself is really is quite ugly.
Started heading to the Galleria dell Accademia and stumbled upon this fantastic church which we still don’t know the name of. Fantastic interior. frescoes, paintings, dead bodies … in a lot of ways the interior was more elaborate then the Duomo. It is these little surprises that have really impressed us throughout our journey so far. I say ‘little’, but these ‘little surprises’ are really quite grand. We keep remarking to each other that these masterpieces hidden away in every nook and cranny of their respective cities, are someone’s local church. They really are impressive.
We ended the day by going through the Galleria dell Accademia. And this was for me the highlight of the day. We knew that Michelangelo’s ‘David’ was there, but nothing prepares you for the sight of it. You turn the corner, and there it is, and it is HUGE. I must be about 4m tall and it is very imposing, set upon it’s pedestal. When you think that Michelangelo completed this work on his own at 29 year’s old … WOW!
Heading home we rediscovered why we aren’t conducting our entire trip via public transport. Trying to find where the bus left from was quite a challenge. Put it this way, it wasn’t from where we thought. And by the time we found where we should have been, (a) we had missed the bus and had to wait an hour for the next one , and (b) it was just around the corner from where we had started our trek to try and find it. And so go the on-going adventures of Brendan and Justine :-)
1 comment:
Lovely buildings guys! Good photos. Feel like we are taking the trip with you!!
Such amazing architecture. I love the mixture of the old and new...like the cash machine sticking out of the wall of an old building. And the heaps of TV aerials on top of centuries old buildings.
Cheers
Post a Comment