Florence -- Spring

It is spring.  Still a bit chilly - highs do not get out of the 60s - but





For the most part, this post is more of the same.  Italian kids are dosed on this stuff from infancy on. Not growing up here, the Italian Renaissance is an acquired taste.  Our recent sightseeing covers mostly must-sees and we will tread lightly on those.

Monday  3/31

  Orsanmichele Museum houses most of the sculptures that were in the outside niches, covered previously.  We also revisited the church to admire the tabernacle:

   S. Maria Novellla was built by the Dominicans in 1246.   A big stop.  Giotto's crucifix; lots of frescoes.   Bizarre damnation tableaux.

  The frescoes on the wall behind the altar of the Strozzi Chapel, by Nardi di Cione,  depict the last judgment.  This was done in 1350, two years after the black plague wiped out over half of the people in Italy.

   The portrayals of the blessed vs the damned are differentiated mainly by their serene vs agitated dispositions.  Lots of Church figures are going down with the infidels.

4/1  We spent the morning at the University's Botanic Gardens.  Planted beginning 1750 and largely neglected, it seemed.  Not particularly impressive.  But proof of spring (see above).

 The afternoon was devoted to temporary exhibit on Portormo & Rosso Fiorontino at the gargantuan Strozzi Palace.  These painters were contemporaries, both trained under Andrea del Sarto.

4/2   We returned to the Uffizi, armed with a new book, Looking at Painting in Florence by Richard Peterson.  It is very helpful, but apparently not available beyond Florence.  Botticelli's Primavera (1482) is probably the most popular work  at the Uffizi, especially as the weather is cooperating now.

We ran into an interesting school project.  The students were Dutch, 17 and 18.  Their task was to sketch an item in the museum.  They then requested a stranger (Bruce) write under it what he thought it was and an appraisal of the sketch.  We could not figure out what the picture was.  Bruce's comment was "lacks academic training".    Their one week trip to Italy included Venice, Rome,and Pisa as well as Florence.  Of course like all Dutch kids, they spoke excellent English.

 dinner Coquiarius.  Pork and mustard sauce potato and artichoke pie.
R. Accademia  pasta with ragu; fried fish (2 kinds of baby eels)



















I Ghibillini  Onion soup; polpette (meatballs)