Today we started our day at the Palazzo Davanzati. This is a merchant dwelling from medieval times and we got to look into all the different rooms. The rooms were much like the buildings in Siena with walls painted dark and hardly any windows making all the rooms very dark. There was a lot of old furniture which was interesting, and there was also an embroidery and lace collection from medieval times. There were shafts in the floor on the first level and mum wondered what they were for, then we read it was to tip hot lead and oil through if the house was under attack!!!
We crossed the Ponte St Trinita (bridge) and next went to the Santa Maria del Carmine church. Here is the very famous Brancacci chapel. There was a bad fire in the church once but luckily it didn't destroy the chapel! There are beautiful frescoes from 1423 here painted by Masaccio and Masolino. These two left Florence before the frescoes were completed though so a man called Filippino Lippi (whose work we saw at the Uffizi yesterday too!) completed them. There was an American school group here which made it hard to concentrate on the frescoes but from what I gather they related to st Peter helping the poor.
By the way I have also been wanting to say that being so short and young looking is paying off! I got two more entries into places today as an under 18 without having to show ID - woohoo! I honestly reckon I've saved us about $150 so far pretending to be under 17 or 18 :)
Next we went to the Palazzo Pitti. This was built in the 1400s and when the Medici family gained power they lived here. Then when the died out and the Hapsburg Lorraine/Leopold family (Austrian royalty) took over, they lived here, and finally when Italy became a united country in 1860 the royal family lived here! First we walked through the palace's gardens, the Boboli Gardens, which were huge! We saw the grotto where Michelangelo's Four Slaves from the academia yesterday used to be displayed.
Next we entered the palace. We saw the Palatine gallery that had the Hapsburg inhabitants' artwork on display and the rooms were beautifully decorated, as were the royal apartments. Most of the rooms had been redecorated in the 1750s by the Hapsburgs, and we found ourselves saying 'it's a shame they were redecorated'. It's funny how since we have come here 200-300 years seems "modern" (this is how old the artwork was in the museum of modern art) yet at this time Captain Cook hadn't even set foot in Australia!
Then we looked at the Costume Gallery. This was particularly interesting because the bodies of Eleonora de Toledo, Cosimo I Medici and one of their sons had been exhumed and their clothes studied and now put on display, helping us to learn what clothes from the 1500s looked like. There was also some clothes from the 80s which was a bit random but they provided us with a laugh anyway (some of them were fairly crazy)!!
We went to Gusta Pizza for the last time and shared a margherita and a ricotta/spinach/mozzarella pizza. I savoured every last bite because I am certain that I will never have pizza that good again in my life unless I go back!!!
Then we walked up to Piazza Michelangelo which is a beautiful lookout point over the city. The sun was even shining for us! It was an incredible view. We walked to the nearby San Miniato al Monte church which also provided a great view point and looked at the old cemetery there. Then we walked back down and had our last Vivoli gelati (savoured every last bite here too!!).
Tonight we are having dinner at a nearby restaurant and then packing up and catching a train to Verona at about 7.30pm Melbourne time.
Now to find a way to fit my leather jacket and handbag in my case without it exploding open....hmmmm!!!!! Haha.
Love to all,
Claire
Xoxoxox
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