Sept 14 - Florence

 Sept 14 - Florence 

Off to the Uffizi this morning, a must-see, and one of the world’s most important art galleries. Home to works by a number of ‘masters’, Michelangelo, Botticelli, Raphael, and Leonardo da Vinci to name but a few, we spent over 3 hours trying to take it all in.  The building’s not such a bad place either to house such a gallery!  Only one disappointment though and that was their collection of Canaletto’s was not on display, we’ll just have to come back! 😊

Another museum was our next port of call, the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, a.k.a. The Bargello (castle).  Not quite up there with the Uffizi this is still a very interesting museum with a number of standout exhibits.  Home to a nice collection of the usual ceramics, tapestries, silver, and coins, there’s also some outstanding brass and marble statues.  Two of the latter were the main reason for our visit and fortunately they had just come back from loan (some others were still out) which was certainly more luck than judgement! 🍀 😀.  Donatello's bronze statue of David, 1440, was the first of these and apparently the first unsupported standing work of bronze cast during the Renaissance.  It also happened to be the first freestanding nude male sculpture made since antiquity.  Although not actually suggesting anything about his ‘David’ but, with nothing on apart from boots and a sun hat, he was hardly likely to put the fear of God into Goliath! 😊  Still, what a fantastic piece of workmanship it is.  The second, and in marble by Michelangelo, was an over life-size Bacchus, the Roman god of wine.  With a bunch of grapes for hair, a huge mug of wine in his hand, a satyr at his feet, and in a bit of a drunken pose, it’s fantastic. 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sept 27 - Perugia (Day trip to Spoleto)

Image
  Sept 27 - Perugia (Day trip Spoleto) Off to Spoleto today, an ancient city in the foothills of the Apennine Ranges.  Divided into the medieval upper town, and the predominantly modern lower town, our initial goal was to head up to the fortress at the top of the hill.  In theory this was going to be relatively easy as the town has installed a number of escalators all the way to the top making it an easy ‘climb’. However, signage to said escalators being non-existent, we found ourselves wandering around town for ages before finding our way up.   The fortress, the ‘Rocca Albornoziana’, was built in the 14th century and was originally part of a fortification system constructed by the church to strengthen its military power.  Today however, it houses the ‘National Museum of the Duchy of Spoleto’, although in more recent times it was used as a prison.  Having some great views of the city and the local countryside it also overlooks the magnificent 13th-centur...
Read more

Sept 28 - Perugia (Day trip to Assisi)

Image
  Sept 28 - Perugia (Day trip to Assisi) Having experienced some pretty steep hills yesterday, today, on arrival in Assisi, we took the easy option and got the bus to the top of town before strolling down! 😊 On a recommendation we first visited a couple of churches in the upper part of town.  Both nice, although nothing spectacular, but considering where we were, i.e. Assisi, I suppose we were both thinking they’d be a little bit special (sorry St Clare! 😊 ) Walking through town though was very nice, really ‘Olde Worlde’, with some great piazzas, cobbled lanes, some Roman remains, and, because it’s in the hills, lovely views of the local countryside.  It’s not often that I’ll mention food on here but today we found a sensational restaurant, overlooking the walls of the city and just metres from the Basilica of Saint Francis, we chose it simply for its location. The food however was superb and, considering its setting, it was no more expensive than most other places w...
Read more