I Walked and Walked and Walked and Saw and Saw

Technorati Tags: Travel,Italy

 

During the last two days, I have toured by foot, four of Florence’s top hits:

 

 

 

 

 

• Ponte Vecchio – Bridge built in the 14th century, on the other side of the river, the road is lined with shops selling silver and gold. It is the only bridge in Florence that the Nazis did not destroy.

 

• Palzzo Pitti – It was the official residence of Florence’s rulers until 1919. It was built for the Pitti family, rivals of the Medici family. The grounds include; a silver museum, galleries, Royal Apartments', porcelain museum, costume museum, gardens, statues, and fountains. I enjoyed this place because it offered a variety of things to look at and gave me a balance between the paintings, sculptures, artifacts, and nature.
  

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• Uffizi Gallery -  with a staggering amount of well know art, including art from the Renaissance, Mannerism, Baroque, and Neoclassical schools, as well as pieces of art from ancient Italy and Tuscany. Most of this was collected by the Medici family. <--- this was the most crowded place I have been. I bought the ticket a day in advance and still had to wait online to get in. It was teaming with tour groups, most of whom did not speak English (much to my disappointment, so ease dropping on say the Japanese speaking group was not helpful.)
  

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• Palazzo Vecchio – a collection of ornate apartments with spectacular floors and painted ceilings. Built by none other than the Medici family. I loved this place because it was nearly empty and I could really look at the floors, walls and ceilings. Needless to say, I was getting tired, there I was standing in front of it, a bit confused because a statue of David is  suppose to be standing in front of it and it was all covered up for repair.

I forgot to eat both days, but luckly today I packed a snack. Which I greedily ate in the Piazza della Signoria.

On the way back to the pensione, I stopped in a jewelry shop, Parsjfal www.patrickwandael.com. The man, Patrick Wandael was making exquisite jewelry from aluminum and rubber. I saw pieces like this at the MOMA this summer. So here in lies my down fall, I purchased a few of the pieces. Now I will be able to proudly wear my souvenirs from the trip.

Exhausted I returned to the pensione, grabbed my laundry and did the wash.

Here I am kicking the machine that ate three of my euros.

I had a great dinner, but I’ll write about it another time.