Today we started our day at the Medici chapel. Here all the Medicis are buried, but unfortunately half of the main chapel was being restored. We also weren't given a brochure and nothing much was in English and the staff were rude! So while interesting we didn't get that much from it. Next we went to the bibliotheca Laurenziana, which Michelangelo created the staircase for which was beautiful!! The library was fairly interesting and had a collection about the printing works started by the Medici family. We saw some of the old machinery that was used.
Then we had a look at the nearby piazza annunziata which had lovely renaissance colonnades, and after that it was time to meet our tour at the front of the Galleria Accademia. Once again we were the only people on our tour - yay! We had a really interesting tour for an hour which mainly focused on the Michelangelo section of the gallery. The statue of David was breathtaking, I never expected it to be so massive! We sat there for half an hour staring at it and having it explained. Including the base it's 5.5m tall, and originally the slab of marble Michelangelo used had been labelled as bad marble that wouldn't sculpt well. The statue used to be in the piazza Della signoria but in 1878 they moved it to the gallery. We also saw the Four Slaves which Michelangelo started but never finished. In 1534 Michelangelo was commanded to move to Rome by the pope because he had become very famous and the pope wanted him to paint and sculpt. So Michelangelo started lots of projects in Florence so that he got paid, but then never finished them and left for Rome where he died in 1564. Clever man haha!!!
After the tour we had a look at the rest of the gallery which included some musical instruments such as the world's first pianoforte. Then we walked to Vivoli and I had pear, chocolate and lemon gelato. Yum yum yum. Lemon is my favourite and if was the best I've ever had!
We walked towards the Uffizi for our next tour and on the way I bought a leather handbag for 85 euro which is made of lovely soft leather :) then we walked along the area near the Ponte Vecchio which was brighter than it was Saturday! Today the weather was really good!
We met our next tour at the Uffizi gallery. It was us and two other Aussies this time and once again our guide was really good! Uffizi is an old word for offices and the Medici family created these offices here in the 1500s. They moved here from the north and were a banking and business family. They didn't want to be government straight away so instead leant people money and didn't make them pay all the money back but instead asked for favours in return. In this way they became very powerful here and were banished twice from Florence to Rome and only returned when two of their family members became popes (Leo and Clemente). Francisco Medici wasn't interested in business though and started an art collection here which along with all other Medici collections was left to the people of Florence by the last Medici family member, Anna Maria luisa. we were left to see the rest of the museum by ourselves but museum fatigue set in!!!
Had dinner at gusta pizza yum :)
Love to all,
Claire
Xoxox
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