A Day in Florence Italy

Wednesday October 29th:

We were at the Florence train station on Monday but chose not to stop and tour the city because Monday is the day that the museums and many restaurants are closed in Italy. Instead we chose to take the 50 minute train ride back into the city on Wednesday morning. Manuele is not licensed for Florence so he referred me to a friend Elena. Elena, like every other guide on this trip, was fantastic. She met us at the train station and walked us to the front of Opera per Santa Maria Novella. Here we stopped at some benches and got familiar with Elena and the day she had planned. Like our guide in Verona she immediately got "in" with the kids by asking them about what they wanted to see. She also had a couple of activities to keep them engaged. Katherine was really into the paper with symbols that she was supposed to find during our walking tour. She also had a mystery case to keep them wondering. 

All around the city there are these holes in the walls. In the past you could walk down the street and put your wine glass here and the family that lived there would fill it up for you. These were wine producing families and I think most of the time they would charge for the wine. In some cases if the wine was in abundance or if it was a family in need they would give it away. These are now bricked in, but the original facade is still there. She really tried to keep the kids engaged while including content for the adults too.

This was a pretty busy little market considering it was still pretty early in the day. We walked by on the way past this church, the Basilica of San Lorenzo. We did not go inside these first two churches. One reason is because they charge admission, but we also had a pretty aggressive schedule to keep for this day. Elena did take us into the courtyard area of this church to educate us on the Medici family. They were a wealthy family that still has many of their markings and symbols all over the city and the Tuscany area. One of her secret items were "real" (wink wink) gold coins from the middle ages. The kids were really excited when they got to keep them.

We made a couple of more stops and talked about some more historical buildings on the way to the Gallery of the Academy. This is where the David statue is located.

Once again I think we were all glad to have a knowledgeable guide to give us so much information about this amazing sculpture. At this point in our travels we had already seem a few other Michelangelo sculptures like the Pieta and the Moses, both in Rome. I was not prepared for the size of this one. I had no idea it was over 16 feet tall. This was such an impressive sculpture to me. The detail in it combined with the overall size was really amazing.

The full frontal subject matter might have bothered me with the kids last year. We have now seen so many statues and paintings at this point I think they are used to it. Elena was also explaining to the kids why Michelangelo chose to do the sculpture in this way, and did a great job.

So, some of the details. First it never occurred to me to walk around to see the back of the statue until she told us to. She pointed out the rock cupped in his right hand. Didn't notice that either.

She also pointed out the strap of the sling shot on his back and that he was holding the part where the rock goes in his left hand.

The tree stump behind his leg was necessary to support the weight of the marble. Due to his orientation and position that he is standing, a lot of the weight ended up on this section of the sculpture. She talked about many other details and history about the piece. It was great.

We were in and out of this museum pretty quickly. My instructions to Elena were to show us any master works of art or other important pieces in Florence, otherwise we were not big museum people.

Next we were on our way to the Florence Cathedral. You can see in at the end of this typical street in Florence. This place was massive. I think because you can see the full building width from one street perspective it seems larger than other cathedrals that we have seen. In fact it is smaller than St. Peter's Basilica at Vatican City, but you really don't see the size of it from the outside because of the terrain and other buildings around it.

We did take some time to walk around inside of this one. 

This was a pretty interesting clock that she gave us some details about. 

Once again from the other side you can see the whole structure. It really made it feel much larger.

Next Elena took us in to this paper shop. I had asked her earlier in the day about souvenirs and maybe a Christmas ornament, something hand made. When we walked by here she stopped to show us a traditional Florence thing. After looking around for a minute the store owner came out and asked if the kids wanted to demonstration. This was great since the alabaster thing was so fun the day before. The liquid is like wall paper glue and he add colors to it. He showed several examples of how he makes various shapes and combinations of colors. David got to create some peacock feather effects on his own after he was shown the motion to use.

After that he carefully put this paper on the top and quickly lifted it off to reveal the design.

We left it behind in the store to dry with plans to come back by to pick it up. A couple of hours later he had it rolled up and ready to go. We bought a couple of other cool paper things including a Christmas ornament. It was another fun interactive experience for us and the kids.

Next we made our way down to the Piazza della Signoria area. This is a large square with several important buildings. Close by was another museum, the Uffizi Gallery.

When we first made it into the museum we stopped to talk about the fresco painted ceilings. Elena had more secret things to discuss with the kids. She was showing them how the artists got some of the colors used and how these bright colors were new at the time.

Again with our desire to see the important works she took us right to The Birth of Venus (Botticelli). We got a great explanation of it and why it is important. Perfect, on to the next.

Above is the Primavera, also known as Allegory of Spring. Below is the Adoration of the Magi, both also by Botticelli. The one below she pointed out the few eyes facing the observer. These are all faces of prominent Medici family members. The one on the bottom right looking directly at the observer is Boticelli. She told us that in most cases if a subject is facing the audience it is most of the time the painter representing him/herself. 

Above is the Annunciation, by Leonardo da Vinci from 1472. It shows the angel Gabriel, sent by God to announce to a virgin, Mary, that she would miraculously conceive and give birth to a son, to be named Jesus, and to be called "the Son of God" whose reign would never end. Below is the Doni Tondo or Doni Madonna, sometimes called The Holy Family, is the only finished panel painting by the mature Michelangelo to survive.

This room you could not walk into. I think it was unchanged from when this was a palace family home. It was dark so the pictures are not great, but it was a neat room.

From the museum there was a great view of Point Vecchio bridge area. Below is a view from one of the balcony areas inside the museum. There were some Rafael paintings that were optional that Elena had in mind too. She asked us how we were doing. Most of us had enough museum time by then so we headed out. 

Elena was really great. By now we had gone way past our scheduled time. She stayed with us outside to make sure we knew how to get to a good eating place and to get back to the paper store to pick up the project the kids did earlier. Even though it was out of her way she stayed with us to make sure we made it. We then found the restaurant that she told us about and had a very very late lunch. It was a pretty long walk back to the train station from there, but we made it and saw a few more sites along the river. The train back to Certaldo was fine and we made the penultimate funicular ride up the hill. The kids got hungry again right before bed time so we got them some more food from the pizza place. This was the evening that Hutch Cindy and I spent on the top of the tower in the dark drinking wine in the cold as previously talked about on the Certaldo post. We had a long day of walking and it was time to rest up for our day with Manuele on Thursday.