Well, I’m doing laundry, so it’s time to fill in more stuff about my travels.
Today was my second day in Florence. I had planned on getting up early, doing laundry, and then going downtown and seeing some museums. Well, I didn’t get up early, and then the desk didn’t have any laundry tokens. So, I headed downtown to see some museums. The first one I went to was the Bargello, which was mainly a sculpture museum. It was alright, but I didn’t think it was anything special. I think the Louvre really killed sculpture for me. The Renaissance sculptors were definitely really good (especially in comparison to what came before them), but the things the 17th and 18th century French sculptors were doing were just amazing. The level of detail they managed to get was incredible, and their work is better preserved (which definitely helps). After the museum, I headed to Vivoli again to get some more of their gelato. It definitely is the best gelato I’ve ever had. It really tastes like you’re eating whatever fruit it is supposed to be (I’ve decided the mark of quality is how good a gelateria’s fruit gelatos taste).
My next stop was the Uffizi. I was dumb and didn’t get reservations, so I went and took a look at the line. It was really long and not moving very much. So, after grabbing a bite to eat, I went and took my place. A French couple from Lyon got in line after me, and we chatted for a while about the different regions of France and Canada. But the husband got impatient so they ended up getting reservations to come back later. So, I turned to the people in front of me, who turned out to be from Toronto. We chatted for a while, but then they gave up too. So, I talked to the people behind me, who were also from Canada. Finally, after close to three hours of waiting, we got in.
The museum itself was really cool. It was very well laid-out, showing the progression of Italian painting from the Byzantine period to the beginning of the 18th century. It was mostly Italian, but every once in a while they’d throw stuff in to show how other countries were influencing and being influenced by the Italians. Everything was nice and chronological, so you could see for example when people stopped using gold backgrounds and started putting in real stuff, when they started to figure out perspectice, when they started using atmospheric perspective, when they started doing non-religious stuff. Then, right at the end, you all of a sudden started to see things that didn’t even have people in them! That was where the collection ended, which was too bad. I guess the Italians were less important in the 18th and 19th century, so there was less stuff to show.
After the Uffizi, I was pretty much done with Florence. I headed back to the side of the river where the campground is, got off at Piazzale Michelangelo to check out and record the view, and then headed over here to do laundry.