Tuscan Hill Towns Day 4
Tuscan Hill Towns
DAY 04 - May 08, 2005 - Visit Uffizi Gallery/Explore Florence
We were able to sleep in this morning as we did not have to meet Giulia until 10 AM. We had a nice breakfast and found that almost all of our group were there again together. We talked to a mother and daughter from St. Louis who were traveling alone and told them the benefits of our OAT tour. Another commercial!
We met Giulia at the Piazza della Repubblica and took another walking city tour of Florence, the birthplace of the Renaissance. We journeyed back in time as we explored the narrow Renaissance streets and piazzas of central Florence. We visited the Piazza della Signoria, where the tall square tower of the Palazzo Vecchia has presided over the great events of Florentine history. We also took a stroll through the San Lorenzo market, a sprawling open-air collection of dealers selling clothes, jewelry and leather goods, taking lots of photos with the famous bronze wild boar. If one rubs its nose it is an assurance that one will return one day this beautiful city.
Today is an important civic festival as it is V-E Day, Victory in Europe after W.W.II. When we were in the central political plaza they were having speeches and a marching band to commemorate this day. From there we walked to the Piazza de Signoria where we saw the statue of Neptune, a copy of David, and many other important political and governmental historical figures. Our short walk to the Santa Croce Square took us through a very rich neighborhood where the aristocrats and garment factory owners lived during the height of Florentine society. We were able to enter the Santa Croce Church for free as it was Sunday and service was being held. We were able to see a few of the crypts of the very famous residents of Florence, the most famous being Michelangelo. Much of the interior is now being restored so our stay was limited.
Right behind the church is the Scuola del Cuoio, a Franciscan monastery where they have the school of leather. Because it was Sunday there were no workers but a gentleman gave us a quick demonstration of the process of tooling fine leather items. Our next stop was the Gold Corner where we learned about Florentine filigree jewelry from a young woman named Jennifer from Florida. She gave us a demonstration of the way they fashioned the ancient gold and then showed us many new styles of modern day gold artisans. We were at the gold corner for about 1:30, much too long for most of us but a few were doing some serious shopping.
Just around the corner was a small shop for wine tasting as well as specialty olive oils and aged balsamic vinegar. We met Pedro, Eduardo and Ciça for a great pizza lunch and a short walk to see Pedro's school. At 3:15 we said goodbye to them and hurried to meet our group at the statue of David in front of the historical Palazzo Vecchia. We arrived at 3:30, right on time, and waited another 25 minutes until several members of our group arrived.
Our local guide, Paulina gave us a brief history the Medici family before we entered the famous Uffizi Gallery situated in one of the grand palaces of the Medici Family on the banks of the Arno River. This is Italy's greatest collection of art which was opened to the public in 1583. We started at the top floor at the Hall of the Sculptors and then visited the magnificent painting featuring masterpieces by Giotto, Titian, Goya, and Rembrandt, & Rubens. Built in the mid-16th century, the illuminating site was used to house the numerous art treasures acquired by the Medici family-including Botticelli's "Birth of Venus" and Michelangelo's "Holy Family" and da Vinci's "The Annunciation". By the time we finished hitting only the highlights, we were on art overload and our feet were feeling the pain of standing for 2:30 hours. One really needs a week to do justice to this incredible gallery.
Everything in Florence is so close to our hotel so we took a short walk back to our room to shower and get ready to meet Ciça, Eduardo, Pedro and their friend Nichole and go to dinner at Acqua Al 2. We had the most unusual but delicious meal starting with five different plates of pasta followed by a tender steak smothered in blueberry sauce. We all had the same thing as we all agreed that it was the most tender steak we had eaten in some time. We finished dinner at 10:30 and went for our constitutional gelato and then said good night to everyone and returned to our room a little after 11 to do the journal and pictures.
Accommodations: Strozzi Palace Hotel Meals: B
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