Our plans were as follows;
Get up really early and line up at the Duomo taking it in turns to souvenir hunt.
Go to church which was originally a granary and climb to the 2nd floor to take a photo.
Be at the Uffuzi Gallery by 11.30 to get in for our booked time.
Arrive at Accademia at 2.30 to see David!
I did wake up early -:3.39am which seems to be a witching hour for me in Cairns as well. Today it was due to Eric's toothache he kept alternating between mumbling, snoring and groaning. Someone else's pain , no matter how much you love them is not a catalyst for sleep. Secretly I was feeling quite cross.
Eric's early morning noises resulted in me totally sleeping in til 7am. Which was very annoying because I had planned to wash our clothes prior to embarking on our day's adventures. Front loaders are a pain in the proverbial, 1 hour and 15minutes later the cycle was NOT finished and I had to turn it to spin manually.
Once spun it was what I call almost soaking wet. However we had no time to waste and Eric hung it up beside the gorgeously scented wisteria vine. We'd snuck on breakfast across the street while we waited for the washing to finish. So off to the bus shelter we went finally ready to start.
My lack of wifi was annoying again as I wanted to use Google maps. However we were in a strange city so rather than use guess work we went to the tourist information centre got info on how to get to the Uffuzi Gallery. I didn't want to be late so suggested we caught the bus. Stupid idea the bus came so late and the line was so long that we were an hour past our booked time. That was in the reserved ticket line the line for the unorganized was approximately 2 hours. However it's to see very famous art works so fully worth it.
Leonardo Di Vinci's exhibit was the big drawcard for us as well as The Birth of Venus by Botticelli. Neither of us studied art or history so we're both very uneducated kn this area. As people from a debatedly 'young nation' we do not have much exposure to the classics.
We started off joined together veritably at the hip because my money saving streak had found the Rick Steves recordings complete with PDFs and photos so that the uneducated can understand art at a basic level. This was going swimmingly with Eric a bit pedantic rewinding and relistening plus gestuculating wildly, when disaster struck in the form of intense dental agony.
Needless to say Rick was yanked off our heads no more cute matching earphones (which I'd raced on to office works to buy before our flight to Europe) and we powerwalked to the Leonardo wing. That is to say Eric took off so fast that I lost him and had a leisure look at Leonardo's work while he chainsmoked in the garden cafe. (I obviously mistook his intentions)
When he finally appeared I showed him around hurriedly and we rushed out as Eric was hungry as well as in pain. I don't know how he managed to eat the amount he ordered. Crostini with pate (its got an Italian name which I can't remember) wild boar tagliatelle (which was as good as his mother's - top praise) and a bistecca alla firenze. This was declared as the best steak he'd ever had.
I for once was completely distracted as i had to ring the insurance company to make sure that dental work was covered, the reply was affirmative so I used Google (voice activated - ok Google to be precise) to find a nearby dentist. Being quick of wit I asked the spruiker out the front to make the dental appointment. I can't remember what i ate, I think it was vongole again.
Appointment made for tomorrow so I whisked the patient off to the Farmacia who gave him anti-inflammatories and mouthwash plus the wrong directions to Academia. By the time we got in it was 5pm, we were 3 hours late, hmmmm not looking like my plans at all. Breathe Irna Breathe!
David by Michel Angelo was luminous in the afternoon light which shone through a window and much larger than I imagined. After seeing this glorious statue and the original Rape of the Sabines I couldn't muster up much energy to look at the sculpter cast wing. Eric however loves technical info so was there for ages while i took a load off!
Giovanni dal Ponte's works with golden backgrounds looked Bysantine to me. This was the only work that wasn't allowed to be photographed. I loved this museum as it wasn't too large and although we were only there for an hour and a half I felt we'd had a good look.
We wandered around just enjoying what came our way and ventured into a gelatisserie which also had granita ( I haven't seen this since the Caravellas had a takeaway next to their hair salon when i was 15) a lady was in receivership of a platter of cannoli so I ordered one cannolo. The ricotta was smooth and creamy - perfection. The gelato was the best yet and Eric had a big chat with the owner who gave us some olive oil gelato to taste - sublime.
We could hear music, so like rats in Hamlin we followed the sound. We'd seen the dole fully faced old men play the cello and base before and sat down beside the duomo to listen. Pachebels canon in D minor has never sounded more beautiful I bought both their CDs. After half an hour we retraced our footsteps to a restaurant we'd walked past before which boasted €16.50 for a bistecca alla firenze. I ordered one to share and man I was so sorry. This was the best steak in the universe!!!
After that climax we walked to our bus stop and stood there for an hour before a bus driver told us it wasn't running til the next day so we hopped on another bus and strolled back to our monastery with other passengers who were also bound for Faentina.
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