Florence Day 3

We woke up very early this morning and made a quick breakfast so that we could bring our bags to our new hotel for the night, and still be at the Academia before the huge crowds arrive. Our new hotel, the Florence Dome Hotel, is up many, many steps. The room would turn out to be small and the bathroom smelled of moldy cucumber. It was not the best. However, the breakfast was great and the people working at the hotel were extremely nice and accommodating. It is also located just about a block away from the Accademia gallery. We arrived at the gallery just in time, cause the lines kept growing longer and longer as we waited. We did not have to wait long and were quickly let into the gallery. The show-stopper in this gallery is Michelangelo's David statue. It was certainly more impressive that I expected. The details were exquisite. You could even see the veins in his arms.

We then went to the other not-to-be-missed art gallery, the Uffizi. This museum is loaded with Renaissance paints and statues. The museum contains art by some of the most famous renassance artist, da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rapheal, Botacceli, etc.

We had lunch near the Uffizi and just outside of the Galileo museum. Lunch was just some sandwiches, but it was pretty good and the sitting was AWESOME! It was so needed as our feet and backs were again in throbbing pain from standing and walking so much.       

Since we were right next to the Galileo museum, we decided to check it out next. This turned out to be one of my favorite museums of the trip. It was filled with the Medici collection of scientific tools such as old thermometers, telescopes, scales, astrolabes, sextants, globes, different types and the evolution of gears (Dylan says I should be calling these escapements-the set of gears that keep time), etc. It was really interesting and impressive to see the creativity of the people who developed these devices. The engineers also seemed to be artists, making their tools not only useful, but also beautiful. They were often made of bronze or beautifully stained wood. 

After the Galileo museum, we went across the Vecchino bridge and wandered over to the Pitti Palazzo. This was the home of the di Medici family once it was decided that Palazzo Vecchino did not have enough nice green space. To avoid walking among the common people in the streets, the Medici's had a raised walkway build between Palazzo Vecchino and Pitti Palace. It ran over the top of the shops on the Vecchino bridge. This is not a particularly short distance between these two palaces, but I guess if you have the money, why not build it. 

Anyways, Pitti palace was grand and beutifully decorated. The palace is made up of a number of museums and was a bit confusing on what was the best route to take through the palace. So we first wandered out into the Boboli gardens to the Porcelain museum. Then we went back to the palace and walk through the costume museum, which was filled with early 20th century clothing. There were some spectacular dresses. Then we moved on to the Palantine gallery and a few of the other museums before we were completely broken from tiredness. 

We just stayed on the other side of the river and did some people watching in the plazas. We found a really good looking bakery and had some deserts while sitting on a wall overlooking a piazza and listened to music. When 6pm rolled around, we went to Archea brewery, a local microbrew company and bar. I had a great milk stout and Dylan had a double bock. We met a couple from New Zealand and another couple on their honeymoon from Long Island. Had a lot of fun chatting with them and the bar owner/brewer.

Once we were feeling good again, we went to dinner at a trattoria recommended by the brewery owner down a narrow alley. It probably would have been impossible to just stumble upon. We had some really good food here.

So after a wine at lunch, 1.5 beers with 7.8% alcohol, and another wine at dinner, I stumbled home. On the plus side, all that alcohol made my italian suddenly become good! Funny that.

Florence Day 2

Since breakfast in Italy is little more than a crossant and cappuccino, we made a small breakfast of an egg, bread, yogurt, and coffee. We were resourceful and took the butter packs and jam from our Venice hotel and used them for breakfast. 

The first stop on our self-made tour today was to stop at the Medici chapels. This is the building that the Medici family used as a church and crypt. The Medici family started as wealthy merchants and eventually built up so much power from their wealth that they became the defacto ruling family of Venice. They also had two family members that were elected (or maybe bought) Pope. You may also have heard of Catherine di Medici who married King Henry II of France and was the mother to a number of French Kings (mostly because all but one of her children were sickly and weak and did not live long lives). She has a reputation that may not be fully deserved as being a conniving and manipulating person who would poison people to get her way. The chapel had the crowns of the Medici family and other relics and paintings of them. The bottom floor was the final resting place for a number of the Medici and the chapel above was spectacularly decorated. Part of the chapel was designed by Michelangelo. The Medici family was a big patron of the arts and one could say that they helped to bring about the Rennassance era by commissioning many of the most famous buildings, statues, and paintings of that time period.

The main chapel is covered in marble slabs all the way up the walls, which reach 59 meters tall. The pictures are done with inlayed semi-precious stones and could be summed up as just awe-striking and opulent.

After this, we went to the Galleria Accademia, but since it was already late morning, the lines were way too long. So we decided to walk to the Duomo and check that out. Our first stop was the baptistry, which had really short lines because it opened only a few minates after we arrived in the line. This was good timing for us since the lines at all the major sites in Florence can be exceedingly long. The baptestry was a circular shaped building set just in front of the Duomo. The inside was beautiful, with mosaics all over the ceiling. The mosaics looked like paintings as the tiles were so small. The roof sparkled with all the gold tiles and looked again very opulent. This seems to be a theme for Florence.

Then to the Duomo dome, but I must remark first on the outside of the Duomo. Wow, just wow. The details are not so fine as other cathedrals that often have a gothic style with heads and gargoles all over. Instead it was covered in mostly flat rectangular lines with the detail coming in the form of patterns made by they marble covering the walls. The effect is unique and inspiring. The lines into the Duomo were long, so we went directly to the dome entrance. We were able to cut the line with our Firenze card that we bought (a very worth wild investment if you will be in Florence for at least 3 days). The climb up was about 450 steps and had us climbing up some old, very tight, and spiraled staircases. Once we got to the base of the dome, we were let out on a ledge that circled around the base of the dome. It is not recommended if you are afraid of heights! However, the view of the inside of the dome was much better than it would be from the floor of the Duomo. Here we could really see the detail in the mosaics that covered the dome ceiling. Again, like the baptistry the dome shimmered and sparked with gold tiles. Then it was back to the small, steep staircase to go up even further. Finally, we emerged on the roof. It was raining and slippery, but the view out over Florence and Tuscany was still; beautiful. The hills in the distance all seemed to have a castle or manor house perched on top and made me long for a trip to the countryside of Italy. On this trip, we are just seeing the major cities. I suppose that means we will have to come back to see the more rural areas of the country!

After the descent, we had some coffee near the duomo (though not really very good coffee) and a cupcake. We people watched for a bit and then walked down to the river to see the Vecchio bridge covered in silver and gold jewelry shops and make our way to Palazzo Vecchio for a secret passages tour we booked. The tour took us through some areas not accessable to the general public and we got to go through some of those hidden doors that are often found in old palaces and castles. It was a fun and interesting tour, but seemed a little short. It was cool to see how the roof and ceilings were held up. The ceilings are basically just hanging from the roof rafters. This is why they can have huge rooms without the large steel I-beams that we need today to hold up large ceilings. 

When we finished exploring all of Palazzo Vecchino, we went to centrale mercado and bought some fruits and veggies to make our dinner tonight. We thought we would get the fresh pasta made just next to our apartment, but the store was not open when we arrived. This ment that we had to walk all to back to the duomo to get some good pasta from the shop Eatily. When we finally got back tot he apartment we made dinner which consisted of salad, tortelinni, and bread. Dylan made a delicous sauce for the pasta with some tomatoes, garlic, wine, and olive oil. 

Venice to Florence

Today we ventured out to a cool costume museum in Venice. The building itself was quite pretty with painted ceilings and other beautiful detailing. The first room had a temporary exhibit with small art pieces made from natural materials, many of which could be used to make clothing. Some of these were pretty spectacular.

The clothing was awesome. The museum contained both men`s and women`s clothing. The dresses had the typical corset and large hips shape. The details on the clothing was immaculate. Think of the hours and skill that would go into these one-of-a-kind pieces and the sewing or details was likely all done by hand. There was an entire room filled with men`s vests and they all again had very fine embroided details. Just beautiful!

The museum also contained a section on perfume manufacture during the same time period as the clothing. I really enjoyed this part as I am starting to play around with making perfumes in my own home lab. If only my lab could look as pretty at this one! Mine is still a pretty great lab, but I just LOVE the wood. 

They must have had thousands of dollars worth of essential oils, musks, and other fragrances in the museum that you could smell. It will probably be the only time I ever get to smell real musk, Sandalwood, and rose essential oils as they are either endangered or prohibitively expensive.

After the museum, we stopped for a cappuccino and a quick break to rest our tired feet and backs. Then walked around the Rialto bridge and did some browsing and shopping. We bought a cool mask from La Bottega dei Mascareri, which is a tiny shop run by a pair of brothers located at the bottom of the Rialto bridge. They make top quality Venician masks by hand. Their masks have been in many movies and in famous Shakesphere festivials.

For lunch, we found a really good stand up pizza and calzone type sandwich shop and then it was back to the hotel to get our bags and make our way back to the train station for our trip to Florence.

Florence~

It felt almost like a culture shock to go from quiet, car-free Venice to the bustling city of Florence. We were greeted with a traffic jam and lots of horns. We made our way to the Airbnb apartment we rented for our first two nights in Florence. It was a cute little two floored apartment in the historic center.

We then went out to the Farmacia di Santa Maria Novella perfume shop. It is a convent that is famous for its production of perfumes, herbal medicines, and body care products. It was a beautiful shop, but very crowded and pretty pricey, so we did not buy anything.

For dinner we went to a Trattoria across the street from our apartment. It was an establishment that caters to locals with cheap, excellent food.