Sculptures & Shopping

Wednesday, 6 July

Over the last couple of days we have been to both Florence and Siena. Florence has always been one of my favourite places to visit. We caught the train into Florence and unfortunately for us, the stupid ticket validation machine on the platform wasn't working so, when the ticket conductor came along we had to pay a 5 euro fine. All in all, not too bad as we hadn't realised validation was necessary and were using the tickets we had bought for our last trip into Florence (for our Vespa Tour meet up)!

It's a good thing I'm visiting some of the tourist spots anew with Bobbie because I had obviously forgotten all about the queues. We went straight to the Galleria D'Academia where Michelangelo's statue of David is housed. *groan* another enormous line to wait in. Thank goodness for tour hawkers! Joined another and were in within 15 minutes. We had a lot to see in one day and it's worth paying the extra to save some time. Our guide gave us some interesting information but she did waffle on a bit and both Bobbie & I wandered off at various points in her presentation.

We saw the original plaster cast of the Rape of the Sabine Woman (the marble statue we saw later was under restoration) and some brilliant unfinished sculptures by Michelangelo. I remember reading a while ago that Michelangelo believed the sculptures were already in the marble and that all he had to do was set them free. Incredible to see limbs and bodies emerging from these great chunks of marble. David was as always amazing to see .... the veins on his arms and hands, the way that his muscles ripple is incredible. Truly a sculpture not to be missed.

Then it was back to the Duomo, the cathedral that is Florence's icon. I love this building, it is just so beautiful with it's green, white and red marbles. Stood in line for about 20 minutes (there was no way around it) as entrance into the cathedral itself was free. It's only the rest of the buildings around it that cost i.e. Baptistry, Campile (bell tower) and the Dome. Went and bought tickets to enter the baptistry and while waiting in line, a lovely young woman came up and asked 'are you stalking us?' ... it was Tilly & Jo, our Australian friends from Il Palio. Not unusual I guess as most tourists follow the same path. We were all very enthusiastic in our greetings and were actually shooshed by the ticket booth. Ooops. In the baptistry we found the dome within covered with mosaics (done by Venetians) .... stories from Genesis, Christ's life and right in the centre a massive mosaic of Christ himself. Must have been quite something to sit there and worship underneath that.

Went for a walk over to the Ponte Vecchio ... the most famous bridge of Florence, which is door to door jewellery stores. So much it was overwhelming and the heat coming from the display cabinets was a surprise. Guess you have to make it glitter! All I could think of was that I'm a lousy shopper and Jocelyn would be going into meltdown!

Now I know that the thing to buy in Florence is leather. I also know that I have the shopping skills of a cloistered nun. I think I need shopping lessons because I simply could not find anything I wanted to buy and it wasn't for lack of choices. Perhaps too many choices for me. I really need an expert to guide me. I was pretty bummed I couldn't find anything. Enjoyed the process of looking though.