Bella Firenze (Florence)

The Duomo of Florence is the centerpiece of the town, and rightfully so. It is a spectacular building. Here are views from different sides of the building. My favorite is the view of a slice of the building from a side street. If you want a clear view of the building without tourists in the way, get there by 8am.

We chose the right time to be in Italy. The weather is fantastic and there are fewer (but still a lot) of tourists. Just had a brief shower this afternoon and later in the middle of the night.

Robert finally made it to the Uffizi museum.  This was my third visit and my reaction is still the same, I’ve seen enough paintings of the virgin and child. It’s remarkable that for centuries this and a handful of other Christian topics were the subject of art.  You would think they had all ended up here, the museum is huge, but oh no, there are plenty more everywhere in Italy! From now on I will admire the churches from the outside.

I’ve got to say that Mary doesn’t look too happy in the annunciation paintings.

Every now and then you come across some different subject matter. Here is a great painting of a monk walking across water to save his friend.  And a few other famous, and thankfully, non-religious paintings.

It was such a relief to get to this room and to see something different this room was so refreshing with all these statues in motion. They look like they are trying to escape the stone and come alive.

Loved this guy, he reminded me of a disco dancer. I can just see John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever doing this pose.  Can you imagine the poor guy who had to pose for this sculpture?

Although I’d been there before, I had no idea there were two floors below the top to visit. After spending 6 hours just on the top floor we didn’t have the energy or mental capacity to take in more. So we’ve agreed that on our next visit we will see only those floors. All in all we were on our feet for 8 hours that day. I certainly got my exercise! The previous day it was only 7 hours on our feet. How do people come here and cram in all this art in just a couple of days

Our first day here I did visit the Baptistry across from the Duomo. Other times when I’ve been here it was closed to the public. Although they are restoring the center dome, which has most of the mosaics, there was one alter to see and it was beautiful. Mosaics have been one of my favorite art-forms from the past. They are detailed yet simple. Somehow I can overlook the religious subject matter and just focus on the beauty of the artistry. Forgot to take photos, but if you look on google you can see it all.

My ticket included the inside of the Duomo, which is surprisingly simple, and the lower level which shows how it was built on previous buildings-which is typical of most Italian churches. Most were built on top of Roman temples. However, this one is built on top of a previous Christian church which was built on top of Roman ruins of some sort.

Here is one photo of the basement where you can see parts of what the Duomo was built upon.

We are enjoying our time here with Robert’s cousin, Francesca, who also joined us in Pisa.  Here is her photo again.

Here are some great views of Florence from different points in the Uffizi, which btw now has a coffee shop/cafeteria on the top floor and a terrace with the view of the Duomo with the mountains in the background.

Every time we come here we find new electric mini-vehicles. The white one is a delivery truck which seemed to have mostly Amazon packages inside. When the driver started it up I noticed he was peddling it.  I wondered if that was its primary motor.

Enough of Florence. This afternoon we leave for Rome where most of our time will be spent catching up with friends.