tuesday, july 17

this morning we woke up early to get to the uffizi gallery. even though we got in line at 8:30am, we still had to wait two and a half hours to get in to the gallery. but it was pretty sweet. unfortunately, they do not allow pictures in the uffizi, so i have no documentation. however, i will include the highlights, along with pictures of the paintings i saw.

the uffizi gallery is home to a lot of very famous old artworks. florence was an important center for art and culture from the middle ages through the renaissance. in fact, it is widely considered to be the birthplace of the renaissance. uffizi gallery has lots of these old italian renaissance paintings, and others that are very important. for instance:

giotto (grandfather of the renaissance; he was the first to experiment with perspective, though very rudimentarily):


botticelli (early renaissance painter): created the two most famous florentine renaissance works of art, the birth of venus and spring:


rembrandt (dutch painter, considered one of the greatest painters. ever.):
unfortunately for us, the rembrandt room was closed during our visit. the entrance was roped off, but i leaned in over the rope and caught a glimpse of this painting. it was still magnificent, though it was viewed from a distance.

Artemisia Gentileschi (female baroque painter, influenced by caravaggio, painted things that women did not paint in her day)
i am so glad i got to see this painting, because it was awesome.

we ate lunch at the cafe in the gallery and afterward we walked to the pitti palace, which was quite a walk. we did not go in, and unfortunately i did not take any pictures (not even of the outside), probably because i was so freakin' hot that i was not thinking straight.

roger and lauren decided to head back to the hotel room while paula and i pressed on to the bargello museum, a museum that used to be a prison and is now the home of quite a few michelangelo works, as well as other famous artists. unfortunately for us the museum had already closed by the time we got there. so we decided to visit the medici chapel (the medicis were the richest family in renaissance florence, and controlled everything: the market, the architecture, the art. it is because of them that we have florence). while trying to find our way around, we stumbled upon this little gem: the casa di dante, or dante's house. it is now a museum, and i would have loved to go in, but we didn't have time. what a shame.
on the way to the medici chapel we decided to stop at the basilica of san lorenzo, one of the largest churches in florence. it doesn't look like much on the outside, but it is beautiful and cool and quiet on the inside.once again, pictures were not allowed, which was really unfortunate because there was a sculpture of an angel leading a girl to heaven that was simply stunning. i cannot find any information on it online either, so you will just have to imagine that it was beautiful.

because we stopped at san lorenzo, we got to the medici chapel just as they were closing. we headed back to the hotel, but i decided that i wanted to do some shopping while paula decided she needed a rest. i walked about on my own, bought some shirts for brad, a purse for me, and a print of the ponte veccio. on my excursion, i took this picture of a horse eating from his feedbag:
it's for brad. he loves things like this.

i went back to the hotel to drop my purchases off, then we headed out for a bite to eat at a new restaurant in town called lo scoppio del carro. it was super yummy.

after dinner we walked to the accademia to see michelangelo's david because it is free entry on tuesday nights. but when we got there everything was closed up and we couldn't figure out why. we knocked and it turns out that there was a concert there that had started at 9pm (it was 9:15pm) and we were not allowed in--no ingresso. pooh. so we walked back to the hotel room. i just couldn't catch a break today.