Italy November 2005 - Day 5 - Florence and Rome

Florence and Rome

We began our morning early so that we could get in everything we wanted to do before taking our train at 5 PM. I say everything even though it was only three things: the statue of David at the Accademia, the Chappelle Medicee and the Uffizi art gallery.

The Accademia opened at 8:15 so at a little after 8, we got in line. When we were almost to the front of the line (around 8:40) we realized we were in the line for people who had reservations, which we did not, so we had to get in the other line and wait all over again. We finally got to in at around 9:10. While we were waiting in line I commented that I couldn't believe all these people were waiting in line to see one statue and I hoped that it was worth the wait. There are some other paintings and statues in the Accademia, but pretty much everyone is there to see David.

It was really quite a sight. The way it is placed in the room, the lighting and the way it is elevated makes it almost surreal. The flesh looks so real that it looks like it would be soft, like skin, if you were to touch it. The statue was restored from 2002-2003 so we are seeing it since the restoration and it looks amazing. It was a beautiful piece of art and worth seeing.

The rest of the Accademia was pretty anti-climactic after seeing such an impressive piece of art. There are some paintings of a religious theme (too many Madonna with Child and Crucifixion scenes) and a room full of sculptures and plaster models by Lorenzo Bartolini. There are also some unfinished sculptures by Michelangelo that are interesting.

After we left the Accademia, we headed for Chappelle Medicee which we tried to visit the day before, but it was closed. Chappelle Medicee is essentially the burial tombs of the Medici family. It is divided into three sections. The first section has a low ceiling and a marble floor with tombs under the floor for the lesser members of the Medici family. In this room there is also a collection of pieces of saints collected by the family over the years and displayed in somewhat garish glass and gold containers. Too bad the Medici family could only collect pieces of saints (you recall that church in Venice that got a whole one)!

The next room is a beautiful very large octagonal room with a very high ceilings and marble everywhere where the tombs of six Medici grand dukes reside. Next is another room, designed by Michelangelo with the tombs of some of the most important members of the Medici family. In this room are some beautiful statues by Michelangelo, "Night and Day" and "Dawn and Dusk."

We left the tombs of the Medici family and went back to the hotel to check out. They held our luggage for us while we went sight seeing until it was time to take our train. Our feet were hurting a bit so we took one of the electric "autobussi" (mini-buses) nearer to the Uffizi. On the way, we stopped in a snack shop and got some smashed sandwiches to eat while waiting in line to get into the Uffizi. We got into the correct line this time and waited for about 35 minutes to get in. Not bad!

We spent awhile walking around the gallery and looking at the art. They have a large collection of paintings from the Renaissance and earlier periods. The building originally also housed ancient artifacts and sculpture, but those were moved the the 19th century to the Museo Archeologico and the Bargello respectively.

My favorite room was the Botticelli room where we saw The Birth of Venus and Primavera as well as some lovely lesser known paintings by the artist. Other well known paintings include Caravaggio's Bacchus and The Venus of Urbino by Titian, among others. It is really an impressive collection of works.

We left the Uffizi and lingered in the Piazza della Signoria where a copy of the statue of David resides as well as some lovely original sculptures including Cellini's Perseus and The Rape of the Sabine Women by Giambologna. There is also a rather impressive fountain of sea gods that dates to 1575.





We left the Piazza della Signoria to catch a bus to the hotel and had some heavenly gelato along the way. We arrived at Santa Croce and while we didn't have time to go in (and see Galileo, Machiavelli and Michelangelo's tombs), we did admire the facade of the impressive church.



We hopped on the bus and took the very out of the way ride back to the hotel, which was fine because our feet were still aching and we got to see some lovely areas of Florence. We went back to the hotel, grabbed our luggage and hopped on a bus to the train station. When we arrived at the station, we found that our train was delayed by 30 minutes, which turned into 45. Finally the train arrived and we headed for Rome. The train arrived at around 7:15 and we walked from the Termini station to our hotel - about a 10 minute walk.

This hotel is also quite nice, however, it isn't in as good a location as the other in terms of being really close to the sites we want to see. However, being 10 minutes from the train station is very convenient as there are numerous bus and subway (called the Metro here in Rome) lines that run to the station.
After we checked in, we enjoyed some dinner at a restaurant around the corner from the hotel before coming back and figuring out a plan for visiting all the sites we wanted to see in the two days we have in Rome.

Click here for Day 6.