Autumn 2022

Florence - 25 September 2022

Ponte Vecchio taken from the Uffuzi Gallery

We sat in our carpark last evening, eating sesame breadsticks wrapped with Parma ham or salami - enjoying being out of the rain. A random man came and tapped on the door - turns out he has a Mobilvetta 87, and then proceeded to show his wife the layout of ours inside! It was all going well until he said to be careful staying overnight! Not a lot we could do by then! It was fairly busy with people coming and going by bus - but we slept, nothing happened - so it’s all good.

During research last night, I had a bit of a panic - found I wasn’t able to book the Uffizi or Accademia online, and both are closed on a Monday! Plus, the Tourist Information closes at 2pm on a Sunday.

Me driving today - about 2-1/2 hours in total. Most of it was on the Autostrada - €9.70. Could whizz along at 130kph- nice driving on a Sunday - virtually no lorries.

We stopped off at a service station to service Dave - all clean and free.

I’ve never driven through so many tunnels - the longest was 7.7km - tiring on the eyes with all the lighting - some were 3 lanes wide. Tintin said he’d read somewhere that the biggest boring machine ever built in Europe was used to carve out the tunnels… €500m - the cost for the Bologna to Florence tunnels - were completed in 2019. 44 tunnels, and 40 via ducts and bridges.

I wasn’t as keen driving around the suburbs of Florence! Population 710,000 (forgot to mention Modena yesterday - their population is 360,000). Anyway, we made it to the Stadium, where there is lots of parking, as long as there isn’t a match on.

It was about 12.30 by then, and we needed to get the bikes out to find our way in and get up to date information from the tourist office. No time for lunch, grabbed the other two donuts from the other day! Was only just over 3 miles - but not very pleasant - really busy, and even though there are some cycle lanes, you keep stopping because of so many traffic lights due to so much traffic from many directions.

We’ve found that the tourist information places aren’t that prominent in Italy. Anyway, Tintin found it with Google maps and we picked up a few maps, and was advised we could just pitch up without booking tickets online first.

Abandoned our bikes by the Santa Croce basilica and walked to the Galleria degli Uffizi. The queue didn’t look too bad, so we joined it. Was only about 30 minutes to getting our ticket and entering the building.

The galleries of the Uffizi were built between 1560 and 1574 for Cosimo l de’Medici, who designed the U-shaped complex to house the city offices - or Uffizi. His son had the upper floor converted to house his art collection, and successors added over the years. The collection was left to the people of Florence by Anna Maria Lodovica, the last Medici - on condition the works never leave the city.

We were unprepared! Tintin had downloaded Rick Steve’s audio tour of the Uffizi, but we hadn’t planned on going today, so AirPods left in Dave! To be honest, it was probably too much information that would be in one ear, and out the other!

Was €40 for both of us. It’s fair to say there were lots of people - everywhere. Not sure I’m particularly good with lots of crowds - doesn’t bode well for Rome!

There were statues and busts everywhere, as an English woman said - there’s only so many little willies you need to see!

Just for our son-in-law - Hercules slaying the Centaur Nessus.

There are 45 rooms to see. Without reading too many of the descriptions, it still took us about 2-1/2 hours to look around.

I think we saw the most important paintings from Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael.

The Birth of Venus has become one of the world’s most famous Renaissance masterpieces. It was painted by Sandro Botticelli between 1482 and 1485 for the Medici family.

La Primavera, or spring in English is also by Botticelli.

Doni Tondo or The Holy Family is one of a literal handful of free-standing (panel) paintings that Michaelangelo did, and this is the only one that has survived. Commissioned by Agnolo Doni in 1506. The name, Doni Tondo, is very literal. Doni is the last name of the patron and tondo means “round” in Italian – hence the shape of the painting. We were earwigging a tour guide who was commenting that Michaelangelo was a sculptor first, wasn’t really a painter, and the nudes in the background are a painting of statues! He said that paintings in a round frame depicted the birth of a child… I suppose these multiple tour guides can say what they want, or interpret history to please themselves!

Caravaggio was sort of the Quentin Tarantino of the baroque period. He painted grotesque gripping artwork that turned heads. His Medusa is no exception.

There was just so much to see! However, there were so many images of ‘Madonna and child’ with paintings by everyone. You’ll have to go yourself if you need further descriptions!

Lovely view of the Ponte Vecchio from the gallery.

Think we were both a bit weary by then (lack of real food didn’t help, plus we ditched our water bottle as it wasn’t allowed inside - 50cl or less only), it’s amazing how much more tiring it is to walk slowly, and around other people!

Afterwards, we treated ourselves to another gelato, Tintin had fruits of the forest, whilst mine was vanilla and caramel - size not as big! €5.

We walked across the Ponte Vecchio (old bridge) which spans the river Arno at its narrowest point, and is the oldest of the bridges over the Arno. The 13th century city authorities allowed flats and shops to be built on the bridge, including butchers who threw their waste meat into the river. When the noise and foul smells got too much in the 16th century, Grand Duke Ferdinand I ordered that only goldsmiths would be allowed to have shops on the bridge - which remains to this day. There were hoards of people, and quite a few actually in the shops.