10/23 : Day 19 - Florence day 2

The day started at the Uffizi Museum. As one of the most prominent museums in Italy it rivals the Louvre in Paris for its holdings. The hugh u-shaped building dedicates an entire floor to Renaissance art from the most famous of Florentine artistis such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Donatello, Brunelleschi, Titian, Tintoretto, Botticelli, Caravaggio, Giotto and Raphael. Included are such works include Botticelli's The Birth of Venus and Michaelangelo's Doni Modonna which is the only complete panel painting that he actually finished himself. Starting in 2006 a project was initiated to expand the museum's exhibition space from some 64,000 sq ft to 139,000 sq ft in order to allow public viewing of many pieces that had usually been in storage. The Gallery now consists of forty-five rooms where the paintings are arranged in chronological order from the thirteenth to the eighteenth centuries. As one of the world's remier museums, its existence is very unpretentious with only a small sign on the building identifying it as the Uffizi.

The next stop of the day was the church of Santa Croce. As a Franciscan church originally built in a poor neighborhood of Florence, it became the city's church of preference for the political and better known families of the city. Unlike other Gothic churches it has a very interesting, different design. The architects did not utilizie the style of high side walls filled with stain glass windows and the ceiling is not the typical barrel vaulted design of so many other Gothic churches. The church is known most famously as the place where influential families and persons of notoriety were  buried. Aside from the members of the powerful de Medici family, other notable people buried here include Michaelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, and Dante, many of whom have large ornate tombs/burial markers prominently positioned within the church. Contrary to the wishes of Michaelangelo, who was born in Florence, but wished to be buried in Rome, the Florentine city fathers overroad his wishes and was able to secure his final resting place in Santa Croce. The unescorted audio tour using handheld devices was unusual in that 80+ individual presentations adding up to a total of 2 to 3 hours of listening and viewing  --- each session was not only quite interesting and but very well done. A visit to this Florence landmark is highly recommended.

The final stop of the day was to the Piazzale Michaelanglo which is across the Arno River a mile or so from the central downtown area of Florence. Set high up on a hill overlooking the city, it provides one of the best views of the Florence. Carol did not make the hike when I told her that it would entail a lot of up hill walking. Unknown to me at the time I told her that was just how much up hill walking it really was --- fortunately she opted out and was much happier for her decision once I got back from the hike.

Last night in Florence once again = a bottle of wine at an out-of-the-way restaurant, this time one next to the Uffizi Museum. As we headed back to the hotel we passed through the Piazza della Signoria again where muscians were setting up for a nightly concert amoung the statues of the arched Loggia dei Lanzi building facing the Piazza.