Farewell, Firenze!

Out and about in Florence.





In addition to my love affair with gelato, I have recently made intimate friends with the Sicilian Granita. Fruit and ice. Sounds simple, tastes mmmmmmm...

Street artists working some wonders with chalk. This painting (Supper at Emmaus by Caravaggio) does not reside in Florence, it's at the National Gallery in London, but it's still a cool

choice.

Museum day! Unfortunately (for the blog), no photos allowed inside either of the museums that I visited this day. So top we have a relatively boring picture of the outside of the Uffizi. Prior to my Uffizi immersion, I went to the Science Museum which, in Florence's case, means an incredible collection of Renaissance measuring devices, scientific tools, surgical equipment (gulp), etc. They have quadrants, astrolabes, armillary spheres, clocks, and telescopes (including Galileo's). They also, apparently have Galileo's middle finger, but the museum is under renovation and only a part of their collection is on display right now. Why G.'s finger didn't make the cut, I can't fathom. On my way back from the museum, I spied this sculpture of a little Renaissance man using a quadrant on the side of the Duomo. I figured that was an appropriate visual representation of the experience.

I love the way the statues are arranged in the Palazzo Vecchio. There are three prominent ones that kind of dominate the square: Neptune, (a copy of) Michelangelo's David, and Hercules. Hercules is on the right, off in his own world, ready to bash in someone's brains with a club. David is in the middle, in all of his...glory, ready to kill Goliath, and then there's Neptune on the left. I think his facial expression is supposed to be pensive, but the way the statues are positioned, he's looking right over at David. In this context, I promise you, the look on his face mutters, "Show off."

As I was having my thrills with Neptune and David, I passed a guy who looked for a moment at David, and said to his British female companion, "That is because I am French and he is not." Man, I wish I had heard the first part of that conversation. I can't make this stuff up.

Goodbye, Florence!

I'm always torn between not wanting to leave the city I'm in, and being excited to see the next destination. Maybe I should become a professional vagrant. I just like to go places. And I especially like to go places on the train. With cappuccino.