Take Two on the Uffizi. The Operator has found a short cut from our hotel to the waiting line for entry at the Uffizi, the right line this time, the line where you have not pre purchased tickets on line, the line where you chance to get in for the day without having to wait hours. See, The Operators in line.
Through this colonnaded corridor and we arrive at our line, joy, we are about number 20, 20 mins out from opening. We discovered yesterday that those with out pre purchased tickets (Rosie and The Operator) wait in this line, after being in the wrong line across the other side of the courtyard yesterday. Every 15 mins after opening they let in 50 general admission people. We are in the first intake of people at 8.15, 20 mins waiting time, very acceptable to Rosie and The Operator.
The Uffizi gallery holds the foremost collection of Italian Renaissance Art in the world. The pieces inside have mainly come from the Medici private collection. The gallery building was built in 1581 right next to their house, the Palazzo Vecchio, it was commissioned by Fransesco de Medici to house his families art collection.
The Medici artworks were gifted by the family to Florence in the 1700s, hey, they owned the town at the time….smells like some kind of tax deduction/evasion to Rosie….with the clause that the works of art are never to leave Florence.
The gallery is a series of long corridors with smaller rooms off them, you can only go one way and it is easily navigated. From the minute you arrive it is amazing, a grand stone staircase winds you up to the second floor, and so it all begins. Thank you Miss Sampson (one of the best and most inspiring teachers) for the awesomely interesting way you taught Art History at NP Girls High, it was a tear in the eye moment seeing the Renaissance textbook come to life for Rosie.
You never appreciate the full majesty of the scale and vibrancy of colour even after all these century’s until you see it in real life. Rosie was pointing out a few of the finer points of the paintings to a glazed eyed Operator when her finger breached the perimeter of the virtual security wall…a laser curtain was in front of the paintings and Rosie set off an alarm, it was loud, it was piercing, the siren went for 5 pulses….Rosie was looking wildly around with her hands in the air ready to surrender…..and no one came.
We were the only ones in the room at the time, after that security ‘test’ , The Operator reckons he has devised the perfect way to steal priceless pieces of art….every other room did have an actual security guard in them…..they had only been at work for not even 30 mins and they were all glued to mobile phones, reading books or talking loudly on cells…..Rosie asked one of the guards a question and he replied in perfectly clear unaccented English ‘I do not speak English’….oookkaaay. The plan is hatched, watch the space on Rosie’s wall at home for a Botticelli ‘replica’.
Rosie and The Operator have heard horror stories and read the reviews about the crowds at the Uffizi, people packed in like sardines in front of the paintings and hardly room to move…..well this morning it felt like we had the place to ourselves….most of the time we were on our own, it was very special.
The Operator even found the most perfect view (below) from the second story corridor up the river, beautiful. So, one hour 15mins later Rosie and The Operator had knocked off the Uffizi and even made it back to the hotel before breakfast finished. Legend or Heathens…you decide.
Our next mission was to visit Fort Belvedere across the river, it was abit of an uphill hike, good training for Rosie and all of the hilltop towns she has booked further down the line said The Operator. The fort was anothr Medici commision and formed part of the cities defenses which included the 14th century walls.
Today it hosts art exhibitions…..like this one…..
Rosie sat on the lap of one of the bronze statues so The Operator could take her photo……and was totally yelled at by a guy standing not too far away, believe me, he went on and on…..Rosie can only say sorry so many times. He was going on that much a group of Americans came over and commiserated at what a jerk the guy was…..Rosie broke the rules, what more can be said. Rosie and The Operator are not going to look at any more art today.
The Boboli Gardens are right next door so we went into them for a look, crikey, we have bought a picnic with us for lunch, hope we are allowed to eat in there….apparently we are, we are just NOT allowed to sit or walk on the grass. The gardens cover over 45 hectares and were commissioned by, you got it, another Medici in 1550 and is apparently one of the finest examples of an Italian garden of the time.
The garden is full of giant trees, winding avenues and structured box gardens, all set in terraces with grand fountains and ancient statuary to give lovely false perspectives . They did forget to turn on the fountains today….The gardens lead down to the Palazzo Pitti, another Medici residence back in the day, a grim, squat, boxy looking palace right next to the river.
This is cool, in Rosie’s world anyway. The Vasari Corridor. Was built by Vasari in 1564 as a walkway for Francesco Medici from the Palazzo Pitti where he lived (next to the Boboli Gardens) to where his offices were in the Uffizi. It is a covered walkway, almost a kilometre in length that starts from the West Corridor of the Uffizi gallery, heads towards the river Arno and then, raised up on huge arches goes as far as the Ponte Vecchio, which it crosses by passing on top of the shops….the real reason for the eviction of the Butchers on the bridge in favour of the goldsmiths was to save the Medici’s sensitive nose from the smells wafting up on his walk home….on the other side of the bridge the corridor goes through a church and down into the Boboli gardens to the Pitti Palace……Rosie and The Operator would have really like to walk this corridor but all the tours were booked out. You are only allowed through the corridor with a guide because it is an art gallery in its own right. Check out the path of the corridor through our pictures.
View from the Uffizi where it starts, it juts out from the building and you can see the terracotta tiled long roof snaking down to the bridge, the corridor is painted the same colour, light beige and has small windows evenly spaced all along it, follow it along the top of the shops on the Ponte Vecchio.
Below you can see it emerging into the Boboli Garden.
Well, thats our round up of Florence, good bye to you charming city, we did not rub the pigs snout….so we will probably not return….your beautiful images will remain forever with me though.
Tomorrow, back on the train and heading towards Venice….we have to meet a man at the Rialto Market who has the keys to our apartment….then, we have a date with the Doges followed by a guided tour of the Grand Canal….Aurora is in Venice this weekend. Wouldn’t it be a small and crazy world if we were to bump into her…..
