Yesterday’s steep stair climb, walking and long day had
taken its toll on our bodies, and both Hugh and I were startled at 8am when we
were woken up by breakfast being delivered to our room. Our food was quickly wolfed down so we could
leave to explore Florence some more.
We decided to see the Duomo area again in the morning. It
was a much nicer area at 9am in the morning, with fewer tourists. When there
are less tourists about, there are less scam artists and pick-pockets.
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| Outside Duomo |
Around the Duomo area were some kitschy tourist stores, so I
stopped in them to buy my Florence fridge magnets and a few gifts for family
back home, as well as some leather belts for Hugh.
By the time we had done our little bits of shopping the
Duomo had opened. We baulked at the €15
per person ticket price. The ticket booth was located inside the Duomo, so we
decided to poke our heads in, and if we didn’t think it was worth it, not buy a
ticket. Inside there is about 3m worth of area you can stand in without a
ticket, so we just did this once we got in. The inside didn’t impress us as
much as the outside did and we could see most of it from the ticketing area, so
we left without spending nearly $60AUD.
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| On the Ponte Vecchio |
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| Ponte Vecchio |
From the Ponte Vecchio we took a short walk to the Uffizi
Gallery. It was a shock to me to see a military presence at the gallery. In
Australia, I take for granted our distance from other countries and the current
goings on in the world.
Winter travel in Europe does wonders for skipping lines and
saving money. In the summer, we were told it was essential to pre-book tickets
to the Uffizi. In Winter, we were able to wait in a small queue, the most of
which being security and bag screening, and be inside the gallery within 10
minutes with no prior reservation. Not having to make a reservation also saves
money, costing us only €8 per person, instead of the €12 per person it costs to
book a ticket with a reservation.
Florence houses quite a large portion of the world’s art
treasures, so a visit to the Uffizi was a must for me. I don’t think Hugh
thought the same. I guess because I don’t have a religious bone in my body, it
didn’t live up to my expectations. The majority of the gallery was dedicated to
religious depictions, because of the commissioning during the eras that they
were created. Don’t get me wrong, the works were stunning and had obviously had
a lot of work put into them, and were far better than anything I could hope to
achieve; but there is only so much gold-leaf Madonna and Child depictions I
could handle.
I did really like the busts and carved statues. The Hercules, the Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess nerd that lives
within me got super excited to see the busts of Greek gods, and other names I recognised
from the T.V. Series.
The ceiling in the main walkway was mesmerising. I think I
cricked my neck looking up so much.
In order to keep my sanity, I started to make little
observations and stories up in my head about each artwork. If anyone who knew
anything about art could have heard my thoughts I’m sure I would have been sent
out immediately. Turns out I wasn’t the only art offender in Uffizi that day.
As I left from a portrayal of the wise men bent by baby Jesus’ feet, I heard a
man snigger beside me and whisper under his breath “Suck my toe, bitch”. It was
almost exactly what I had been thinking. I did wonder if he had the same Zombie
Jesus musings that I did when he got to the green-tinged portraits of the risen
Jesus.
What seemed like many hours later we finally escaped the Uffizi.
It was close to the Santa Croce area where we had eaten dinner on our first
night in Florence, so we headed this way. On our way we found a leather factory
so popped in to have a look. We also saw the Palazzo Vecchio and finally found the statue of David standing outside it.
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| Palazzo Vecchio near the Uffizi |
By now it was getting late so we popped back across the Arno
river for dinner. Hugh had a pesto tortellini and I decided it was finally time
to try a pizza in Italy, and opted for a ham and mushroom pizza. Something I
learnt about Italian Pizza was that they tended to use only 1 or 2 ingredients,
and it was a much better way to eat pizza.
With fully bellies we started towards our hotel, making a
detour to the Piazza Della Repubblica to try to work off some of the pizza. The Piazza was still bustling, with the Picci
Carousel brightly lit, buskers playing lively music and shops still open.
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| Picci Carousel |
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