Dreading the extra-long queues, and unable to reserve tickets (sold out), we got up early, breakfasted, and queued up at the Uffizi twenty minutes before opening. There are only around thirty people in front of us. Given the page space devoted to the museum in our guidebook, we expected something the size of the Vatican, but it's quite a lot smaller (but still really nice). Notable paintings include
The Birth of Venus, Primavera, Venus of Urbino. The famous Venus statue was indisposed when we were there. So it goes. We had a Rick Steves audio tour here too, which highlighted the important works and changing styles and methodologies employed in painting as the Renaissance got going. The Galleria exhibit was the work of Caravaggio.
The museum took less time than we expected (only a couple hours, perhaps Lonely Planet's 4 hour estimate was assuming a long wait in line and the need to elbow past crowds?), so wandered around Florence poking into whichever churches we could find that were open to tourists (not many, as it was Sunday). They have a lot of really lovely churches in Florence.
Next we decided to head over to Pisa for the afternoon. Pisa is a cheap (5.70 Euro) and fast (1 hour) train ride from Florence, and the tower is around a mile from the train station, so we walked. On the way, we picked up some gelato (chocolate and hazelnut, yum). The tower is quite a bit shorter than Mary had remembered or Josh had imagined. And it leaned more than either of us had expected, even though Mary had seen it before! There's a very nice green space around the tower (which is part of the Duomo complex). Here, we relaxed and enjoyed the sun and shade and views before we headed home. The leaning tower looks just like the photos, except it's not until you see it in person that you discover that you never really believed that it leans
that much.
Subscribe
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment