Florence hosts over 3 million tourists yearly. Its no wonder with the amount of galleries and museums, not to mention historical architecture and cathedrals. I have just begun my "touristy" outings around the city. Aside from seeing the notable buildings from the outside, I've yet to visit any museums or galleries until today!
I dove in head first, taking on one of the most elaborate collections in the city at the Uffizi Gallery. Oh yeah, after visiting my favorite panini shop and getting one full of porchetta, spicy eggplant, arugola, artichoke, truffle and pecorino spread on fresh, warm foccacia. Anyways, this building has held artwork for centuries, and holds pieces that are from the year 1000 and beyond. Many of the pieces were originally designed for cathedrals and wealthy families. They feature real gold in their paintings and are mostly story telling and centered around events. The amount of paintings with religion was of an overwhelming majority, a huge influence of art throughout the ages. Unfortunately, camera use is not permitted inside the building, so I have little to share with you visually. But I've found a few of the things I saw online to share with you.
One of the most famous pieces I saw today was the of the Greek goddess Venus (of love) in the depiction of her birth from the sea. The painting is huge, done in 1486 by Sandro Botticelli. There were many other paintings of Venus done, some of which are also very famous
This was one of my favorites, named Allegory of Vanity done around 1650.
My roommate and I were in the museum for over three hours, and I'm not even sure that we saw everything. It was all gorgeous, and I'm sure that pictures of the pieces wouldn't do them any justice. Tomorrow I hope to do some more touring of my town, and over the next weeks. I think that mostly I will try to go during the week because there are less actual tourists. Time for a nap - mentally and physically drained.
A dopo, one love,
VA
