 |
| Guess what? Something came for me in the mail! And I've never even knew mail existed in the first place. |
 |
| Ooh it's a card... ...kinda got a shock when I opened it, thought I was looking at a long lost twin. |
 |
| Let's see what it says... ...some curly whirly stuff here... ...ah forget it I can't read. Can someone bring a translator in? |
 |
| Oohh...it's from my parents...ooh...uh-uh...hmm...hey how did they know I was eating other people's food? Someone's ratting on me...shucks... |
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!
We arrived in Florence late at night after doing Pisa so the first night was uneventful. We did discover a laundromat near our hotel though so that was convenient. Me and my laundry issues, haha…
The next day was more interesting. We woke up and went down to…. the Galleria dell’Accademia (Academy Gallery) to check out Michelangelo’s David! Actually they have other sculptures by him there too but I think everyone is there to just look at David. Apparently, in summer the queues can get ridiculously long and they actually let you pre-book your tickets so as to guarantee chance to meet David. In any case, since it was winter, there was no crazy queue and we got to see David just by walking in. Only one lousy picture cos they don’t allow photos apparently.
David was well, just amazing… Again I think it’s one of those things you have to go see for yourself. There are like a gazillion replicas out there but nothing beats seeing the real thing. Of course they now have a glass barricade in place cos apparently some crazy dude decided to throw himself at the statue and hammer away the toes so now you can only admire it at a distance. His face really does look different at different angles so I guess it shows how great an artist Michelangelo was. Apparently he preferred sculptures to paintings, so maybe that’s why David looks the way he does and why its so famous.
There were other sculptures by Michelangelo there too, so we also spent a bit of time looking at them. Those sculptures are ‘the four famous nonfiniti (“unfinished”) Slaves, or Prisoners’. Though they are unfinished, they also looked kind of completed to me.
After that we walked around a bit and stared at the other sculptures and paintings. One floor was closed though so there wasn’t really that much to see and we left to see… the Duomo!
The Duomo, which by the way we realized there’s one in every city in Italy, was apparently ‘the largest cathedral in its day’ and is ‘still the second longest church in Italy (behind St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican)’. Honestly, we thought the colors looked a bit un-church like (?), don’t you think?
Before we talk about the Duomo, let’s talk about the baptistery next to it. A baptistery (for those who are wondering) is well where the baptize takes place, why they have to build a separate building for it, I can’t remember. In any case, this particular baptistery was well known for its glided bronze doors which Michelangelo apparently hailed as ‘Gates of Paradise’. The ones on display were copies and I couldn’t find them at the museum where they were supposed to be. In any case, more on that museum later. The bronze doors were interesting as they depicted scenes of the Old Testament, I can’t really say if they are really ‘Gates of Paradise’ but they were interesting enough to look at.
After that, into the Duomo we went. The inside was relatively empty (?) except for a few frescos in the dome. The dome is really the highlight of the Duomo, it was apparently the largest in the world in its time. There’s some technical explanation on how Filippo Brunelleschi constructed it, but my little brain didn’t really understand but it is a marvel to look at.
After the Dumo, we went to the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, which is the museum I mentioned above. I wanted to find those bronze doors but well I couldn’t. They also had an unfinished Pieta by Michelangelo on display so we spent quite a while staring at it. CS actually spent a really long time admiring it so I went off exploring the other bits of the museum.
There was supposed to be some gates of St John the Baptist on display but they were being restored so I didn’t get to see them. The museum was interesting enough, they had a pretty good explanation on the evolution and construction of the Duomo but most of it was in Italian so I didn’t really get it. They also had a restoration room which was closed but looking through the glass door, it looked like a surgical room, hehe MH maybe you’ll like it. Pity the restorers weren’t working, it would have been interesting to see how they actually carry out their work.
After the museum, we decided to climb the Campanile di Giotto, aka bell tower. You could climb up both the bell tower and also the Brunelleschi’s Dome aka the Duomo’s dome but we thought the bell tower would be a better choice since
(a) you can take pictures of the dome from the bell tower,
(b) you need to pay to climb the dome and the bell tower and we didn’t want to pay for both
(c) we honestly cannot climb both, considering our age, haha…
The first thing we saw while getting the tickets was that ‘there is no lift (!)’, lol… The climb was well tiring, there were a few rest stops (I call them rest stops) so you can take pictures and catch your breath before continuing. Our decision to climb the bell tower was definitely the right one cos the dome looked ridiculously crowded even in winter. The sun was out though by the time we got to the top so pictures didn’t exactly looked good.
We had dinner at a little place recommend by our guidebook (Trattoria Le Mossacce, Via del Proconsolo 55r). We had fabulous stews, an interesting soup, good local wine (Chianti region) and beer (Birra Moretti). Finished the beer but wine was just too much. So that's part uno, part due will be up soon.
