The Ham Nomads

26 Mar 2015. <IT> Firenze, Toscana —

Firenze. The day, although grey and spitting rain a little, is a lot better than yesterday, so we took the bus into town. We got off near Piazza Santa Maria Nuova and dropped in to the Ospedale Santa Maria Nuova (the oldest hospital in Florence, founded in 1288!) — we need to get more prescriptions to be filled before we venture into Eastern Europe. They weren't in a position to help us directly, but they pointed us to the Guardia Medica Turistica, operated by the Misericordia di Firenze, itself founded in 1244, who run an open clinic for tourists from 2pm to 4pm every weekday.

But first, The Uffizi! One of the most incredible places you could wish to visit, one of the oldest and most famous galleries in the world. If you haven't pre-booked (as we hadn't), you have to queue, and the queue advances in bursts as restricted numbers are let in in bunches. We queued for 90 minutes. It brought back memories of Expo88 in Brisbane, where queuing became a culture! But our queueing was far from boring — we met an American lay Dominican brother, Brother Thomas, who was a most entertaining conversationalist — particularly as Warren's historical studies meant that they were talking on the same wavelength — music, mediaeval history, science fiction — and don't mention the Spanish Inquisition! Finally we were let loose in the Uffizi. In the main corridors there are Roman statues, paintings hanging on the walls behind them, and the ceiling is the most incredible confection of 16th century painting. Then, there are rooms off to the side, containing paintings (and more sculpture). Much of it is from the Renaissance, but there are earlier and later works as well. Okay, they have some Leonardo, some Tiziano, some Raffello, but the two rooms that really had the most impact for us were literally packed with Botticelli! We can't get over his exquisite female faces!

Michelangelo Buonarottu
The Holy Family
with the infant John the Baptist

Botticelli
The Adoration of the Magi

Botticelli — probable self-portrait
in The Adoration of the Magi

Leonardo da Vinci
The Annunciation

And then we went downstairs, to the foreign painters, and found — without any fuss — an El Greco and a Goya, both of which we recognised immediately after our intimate relationships with these artists in Toledo and Madrid! And there were three of the Rembrandt self portraits! In this section were several paintings by Rubens, Van Dyck, and other 'foreign' painters.

El Greco

Goya

Rembrandt self-portraits

We left the Uffizi and went out into Piazza della Signoria to explore it and the Loggia dei Lanzi. We dropped in to the Palazzo Vecchio, which contains more museums. Unfortunately, they were closed, as they were setting up for a visit by the Italian president in a couple of days. But the day was getting on anyway, so we decided to make our way back to the van to recover from a wonderful day of exploring the Uffizi and just walking the streets of Firenze, which are now starting to become alive with the first flush of spring tourists!

Must point out that our bus trips in and out of town today were an experience. You've heard stories of the cramming of passengers into Tokyo's trains — well, this was much the same — except that the Japanese tend to get quieter under pressure, but the Italians — ah, the Italians! The ticket validation machine on the bus was towards the front, and the passengers who had boarded through the rear doors had no way of getting to it, so they simply bundled up their tickets, passed them forward to whoever was nearest the machine, and the validated tickets were then relayed back to them. Hilarious!

Distance driven — today, nil; to date, 16,625 miles ( 26,756 km )