Statues, Saints & Steak

Steak Florentine in Florence

Today (Friday) is our last day in Florence, and our plan was to see as many museums as possible.  We went (again) with Ken and Ellie James, who had also purchased Firenze cards, which allow you access to almost all the museums in Florence (except for the Gucci museum), and which, according to our guidebook and the PBS travel shows we're addicted to, let you "skip the line".

Firenze Cards and More

Our first stop was the Duomo museum, where the artifacts from the Duomo were moved after the disastrous flood of 1966, which covered almost all of Florence. Along the way, we couldn't help but admire the architecture of the buildings along the way. The details on this Art Nouveau building were extraordinary.

Art Nouveau building in Florence

The Duomo Museum

The line to get into the Duomo stretched all the way around the Piazza. However, there was no line to get into the museum, where many of the treasures were moved after the 1966 flood which devastated the city.

Ellie James, St. John, Stephen Gilbert

The back wall of the museum is a recreation of the Duomo facade as it appeared in the early 1400s. The authentic (original) statues are near eye level, while reproductions appear higher up where those statues would appear. Right above Ellie James is Donatello's St. John the Evangelist, the most famous of the statues appearing on the Duomo, and one of Donatello's earliest works, finished in 1411.

The Florence Campanile or Bell Tower

Right beside the Duomo is the Campanile or Bell Tower.  Our ticket allowed us to climb it, but the wait was more than 30 minutes, and it was just too hot. Across the bottom were two sets of diamond and hexagonal decorative reliefs. The entire collection is now in the museum.

Decorative panels for the Bell Tower.

 

The inside of each panel is backed with enameled tin tiles, a technique which our daughter tells us was developed in Florence. In the lower level of the Bell Tower you can see where additional statutes were placed, four from Donatello. Here is Jeremiah the Prophet, one of the most famous, stored now in the museum.

Donatello's Jeremiah the Prophet

The museum also had one of Donatello's last works, Magdalene Penitent, carved from white poplar, showing an emaciated, draped in hair Mary Magdalene.

Donatello's Magdalene Penitent

In 1401, the cloth makers' guild in Florence held a competition to design a new set of doors for the Baptistery of the Duomo. The two finalists were Lorenzo Ghilberti (must be a relative), and  Filippo Brunelleschi. Ghilberti won, and Bunelleschi went off to Rome to study architecture (where his measurements of the Pantheon became his inspiration for creating the great dome of the Duomo).

Gilbert & Ghilberti's Gates of Paradise

Ghilberti labored for more than fifty years on the two doors, one with scenes found in the New Testament, and the second with scenes from the Old. Michelangelo was so impressed with the doors, that he nicknamed them The Gates of Paradise. The nickname stuck through all of these years. They are currently stored under glass in a nitrogen atmosphere.

Michelangelo's Deposition (the Florentine Pieta)

The Pietà, in the Vatican, is probably Michelangelo's most famous work, after The David. This is his last statue, which he worked on from age 72 to 80. He had no commission, and it was reportedly intended as part of his tomb. He never finished it. 

According to the prototypical art historian, Giorgio Vasari, in a fit of frustration he attempted to destroy the sculpture, and then sold the remains. It was restored by the sculptor Bandini, and his apprentice, to its current state after his death. The figure of Nicodemus, at the top, is said to be a self-portrait of Michelangelo.

The Bargello Museum

Donatello's David 1408

Donatello was 22 in 1408 when he created this version of David. Notice the huge rock in Goliath's forehead.  Next to it, we found Verrocchio's bronze David, created in 1470. Verrocchio was the teacher of Leonardo da Vinci. Supposedly this is modeled on the young Da Vinci

Verrocchio's David

The third, most famous of the Davids, was Donatello's second take, in 1444, which featured the first nude male statue in over 1000 years. I, personally, found it a little creepy but maybe that's just me. 

We also saw Michelangelo's bust of Brutus and his Bacchus here, as well as the original competition designs from Ghilberti and Brunelleschi.

Giambologna's Mercury

Downstairs we finished with Giambologna's Mercury, memorable as the FTD Florist logo, and headed out to try and finish the big four with a visit to the Uffizi Museum.

The Palazzo Vecchio

As you might guess from the subheading, we didn't get into the Uffizi. There is a separate line for card holders, but even that line was about an hour wait, and the heat was stifling. Instead, we went next door to the Palazzo Vecchio, the Town Hall and later residence of the Duke of Medici. The Mayor's office is still there.

Palazzo Vecchio by night

Underneath the Palazzo there are Roman excavations of a bath house and amphitheater.  It was interesting, and there was a short multimedia presentation. It was also cool, literally. Up stairs were different apartments. They weren't furnished, so mostly you were looking at paintings and wallpaper.

On the third floor, in the Sala dei Gigli, or Hall of the Lilies, we saw the restored Donatello statue of Judith and Holofernes, depicting a scene from, according to Wikipedia, the "biblical book of Judith." I couldn't find the scene in my Bible. 

By this time it was 2:00 pm and we were hungry and tired. Ken had to go back to the hotel to work on a paper, so Kathy, Ellie, and I went looking for one of Rick Steve's recommended eateries. The long suffering young ladies bore with me as I went up one alley and down the other, only to finally find the Osteria Vini e Vecchi Sapori which looked like just what we wanted. Unfortunately, they needed reservations.

Ellie James and Kathy at Trattoria Anita.

After a few more tries, we ended up at Trattoria Anita where "brothers Nicola, Gianni and Maurizio offer good value with their weekday lunch special featuring three hearty Tuscan courses... ." Kathy had a large salad, which she wasn't crazy about, while I had the menu del giorno (menu of the day) with spaghetti bolognese, a pork plate, and cauliflower.

Lunch at Trattoria Anita

After lunch we got back to our hotel about 3:30, which was a little late for my pisolino (siesta). Ideally I would like to sleep from 2:00 until 5:00 pm. And I still don't have any trouble falling asleep at night. 

Piazzale Michelangelo

At five we joined a group of about ten, organized by Linda Rourke, to take a bus to the Piazzale Michelangelo, a park on the hill across the Arno River that overlooks the town. 

The views were spectacular. You could clearly see the Duomo, which is hard to see from ground level because the streets are so narrow. The clouds in the sky were fantastic.

Duomo from Piazzale Michelangelo.

About 200 yards uphill, is the Romanesque church of San Miniato. According to the tradition, St. Minias was beheaded for his faith on the banks of the Arno. Like St. Denis in Paris, he picked up his head and walked to the site of this church, where he died and was buried in the first Christian cemetery in Florence. The current church was build in the 1200s to house his remains.

Kathy & Steve at San Miniato, Florence

Every evening, as they've done for a thousand years, the monks' Vespers service features Gregorian chants from the middle ages.

Chanting monks at San Miniato.

By this time, the sun was getting ready to set. Here you can see a portion of the cemetery.

The cemetery at San Miniato

While the rest of the group walked down, Kathy and I caught the bus so we'd have time to have a T-bone steak dinner at Trattoria Dall'Oste, right around the corner from our hotel. It was great.

In the morning, we leave for Austria.