Florence, the artistic capital of the Italian renaissance holds many cultural treasures. The lines are long, but the art worth the wait. To be honest, the galleries do suffer from a slight over abundance of depictions of Jesus and the Holy Virgin. It's a pervasive theme throughout the Louvre's Italian collection as well. Some of the famous works include Botticelli's beautiful fresco, 'Birth of Venus,' and Michael Angelo's massive sculpture, 'David'. So huge it has a whole gallery almost devoted to it (the other works consist mostly of Jesus paintings), David thousands everyday. It is a brilliant working of stone, anatomically accurate down to the veins upon his arms. For an image so widely recognised and used in popular culture, the prohibition of photographs of the sculpture made little sense. When the guard wasn't looking I took some sneaky snaps.
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| David |
For an architectural icon of the Renaissance, there is the massive dome of Florence Duomo. The first time we tried to enter Gemma and Nikki were both rejected by the Catholic fashion police. The second time, the offending shoulders now properly clothed, we succeeded and were able to gaze up at the domed feat of 15th Century engineering.
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| The Duomo |
Nearby Florence is Pisa, to which people flock to see a structurally unstable building attempting to resist gravity's pull. A tower falling in slow motion. And no, I did not photograph myself trying to hold it up. To get there we took a train through the beautiful Tuscan countryside.
There was yet more delicious gelato in Pisa. I made the mistake of trying a three scoop cone as it was only €2. I was unprepared for how much gelato this actually was, crammed on top a little cone and rapidly melting in the heat. I think it was Mango, Watermelon and Cheesecake. An Interesting combination.
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