Today was the rainy portion of our Florence trip. We headed to Ponte Vecchio where we bought a nice card along the way and also got asked to signed a petition by 2 Italian girls outside the Uffizi. It was a little weird how it happened, we got asked to sign a petition against drugs and after signing they asked us if we would like to make a donation to their organization which helps drug addicts rehabilitate. Since there was no mention of a donation beforehand, we felt a bit weird that it was mentioned when we were signing the petition. In the end we did donate 5 Euros, but we both felt a bit uneasy about it. We did a Google search the next day and there was a post asking if it was a scam on Tripadvsior with some replies that is it a legit non profit organization but unclear about their activities. In any case, if you go to Florence and get approached by someone asking you to sign a petition, just be more aware.
The Damien Hirst exhibit was basically a human skull with loads of diamonds on it. Apparently it was the first time that the exhibit is on display for such a long time (there were prior exhibits in other places but for shorter periods) and they had some serious rules. From what I remembered,
Only 12 people can be in the room at any one time
Only to be viewed in a dark room with only the spotlight illuminating the skull (basically other than the skull you can barely see the person in front of you)
You are allowed to stay in the room for only 3 minutes
And so on…
Since it was winter, there was no queue to see the exhibit. After getting our tickets, we just walked right into the room. There were a few checks for our tickets but otherwise there was no wait to get into the room. I’m no art expert so I can’t say if it symbolizes the meaning of God or whatever he wanted it to symbolize but the diamonds are truly amazing and since the room was utterly dark, they were super sparkly. I thought it was quite disturbing that the real teeth were still on the skull, in any case its weird enough that he wanted to stick diamonds on the skull. The skull was seriously loaded with diamonds, on every single crevice, which was amazing and weird at the same time. For security reasons, they didn’t allow any photographs so you will just have to refer to the official website for pictures.
After Damien Hirst, we wandered around the museum looking at other pieces of art. The museum also serves as the Town Hall of Florence so if there are special events going on, some of the rooms will be closed and they will offer a discount on ticket prices. I thought it must be a bit strange going to work everyday in such a historical building which is full of important art but I guess with so many historical buildings around, they might as well make full use of them. There was one room in particular which I liked a lot, which showed some old maps of the world. It must have been a crazy task trying to plot all those countries in ancient times. I’m not sure how old those maps are exactly since there were no signs but they looked ancient enough.
After that, we took a break at Piazza della Signoria which was just outside Palazzo Vecchio. They had the replica of David as well as some other sculptures. I guess if you come in summer and don’t want to queue to see the real David, this may do as well.
After that it was onto the Uffizi. Again if you come in summer, its recommended to pre-book your tickets but once again we managed to stroll in and get tickets. There is some serious art here and since we are not serious art fiends, we ran straight to the rooms with the famous masterpieces. What I can remember seeing are
Botticelli’s Birth of the Venus and Allegory of Spring
Leonardo da Vinci’s Annunciation
Titian’s Venus of Urbino
Of course the lousy thing about visiting in winter is that they take the opportunity to do restoration and renovation, so we didn’t get to see room 18, which is supposed to be very lavish, or Rubens nudes in room 41 or Caravaggio’s works on the first floor. I guess all this just means we have to come back in summer in like 20 years time.
After the arty day, we ended it by going for dinner at this place CS found using Groupon Italy. As we had time to kill before dinner, we went to the Gucci shop to take a look see, apparently the label was started in Florence. As we are Asians the sales assistants were quite friendly to us though we obviously didn’t buy a single thing, haha… not sure if prices are a lot cheaper than Singapore but I guess they probably will be.
After the Gucci excursion, it was onto dinner at La Decima Musa (The Tenth Muse). We started with a beef carpaccio and fish balls. Yes, fish balls but not the usual "Fei Siong/Old Chang Kee" type back at home. Well, it was still minced, deep fried and served with sauce but look at the picture and you'll see why its different. Both dishes was interesting and delightful for us. Beef was so thinly sliced on top of a tasteful seasoned layer of cheese. Fish balls were light and fluffy which blended very well with the creamy sauce.
For Primi Piatti (first course) had Spaghetti Carbonara and Lasagna. Well cooked and baked just right. What was amazing to us is the amount of food in a standard 3 course Italian dinner. Each of our course individually would have been a main course for our stomaches. Knowing that we had steaks coming for our Secondi Piatti (second course) we decided not to finish the pastas and save space for the steaks. Steaks were wonderful for the eyes but unfortunately didn't have the same effect for the palettes. Some problems with the doneness. All in all, it was a nice, slow and enjoyable dinner with local wine from the region.
Another interesting thing was that the restaurant allowed the guests to bring their dogs into the restaurant! This guy brought in his husky (I think that’s the breed, not very sure) and the dog just crawled under the tables! So weird! I spent half the dinner staring at the dog, haha…. And in any case, Italians seemed to love their dogs, we have seen dogs in shops, on the bus and even in hotels!
We took a nice walk after dinner back to our hotel. Florence was really quite safe to walk at night I must say, the streets are nicely lit up and there were enough people walking around to make you feel safe.
Next, part tre and then Tuscany!
hey! what's fish balls doing in Florence hrmph hmm...
ReplyDeleteHey Ah Seng, got your blog from Shirley's. Love it that you are n your wife are happily on a long-term travel plan.
ReplyDeleteHave lotsa fun ! looking forward to more posts :)
- Weiwei