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Published: June 30th 2005
David
Photos, especially of white marble, don't do a good job of conveying size. The guy is huge.Reghina, my hostel's proprietor, has gotten rave reviews from everyone I've met who have stayed at Locanda Starlight. I'm now part of that group. I had previously tried to book a reservation to the Uffizi and Accademia Gallery, since the lines to get in can get as long as 4 hours. I was told at that time that they were booked until the end of July. I had braced myself for a test of how much virtue (of the patience variety) I had, until I came back to the hostel last night. While I was gone, Reghina had apparently found out that there were some last minute cancellations, and secured 3 reservations to the Uffizi for 8:15 (which is when the museum opens). She wrote a note to this effect, including the reservation code. To say I was delighted would be an understatement. I'm rooming with two American girls (Sarah and Rina), and they were more than agreeable to using the miracle reservations together.
With said helpful proprietor, I discovered that
it is possible to do Florence in a day, as I essentially did so today. We got to the Uffizi at 8:17, and skipped an already long line. It
was delightful getting to tour an almost empty museum. I absolutely adore the place. There's a whole (large) room that's nothing but Botticelli! Getting to see Birth of Venus and Primavera in person was a treat. The Raphaels, di Vinci's, Michelangelo's and Caravaggio's were just icing. The building itself is richly populated with marble busts and statues that atest to the Medici's appetite for collecting art. The gallery enforced a strict no pictures policy, and with the scarcity of people thanks to the early hour and our queue-skipping, I decided to comply with said policy. All in all, I considered myself extremely lucky, as we were out of there by 11am. We had spend two and a half hours in the Uffizi, none of which were spent in line.
The Accademia, which is on the opposite side of town, we did have to line up for. We got there at 11:30, and ended up waiting in line for about one and a half hours. There are a lot of other things in there, including unfinished statues by Michelangelo, but David was definitely
the attraction. It's a LOT bigger in person, and the fluidity of the statue and level of
detail really surprised me; you don't really see the nuances of white marble in pictures. It was also interesting to be able to go all the way around the big guy. Said walkabout revealed that the sling he has over his shoulder is actually very long: his right (lowered) hand is actually holding the other end.
It still being early, I decided to visit the the Duomo today. The interior, while huge, is actually kind of bland compared to Santa Maria dell Scala, St. Peter's, or San Marco in Venice. Definitely unexpected given the incredible exterior. The line to go up the dome was reasonable, so I decided to queue up. That proved to be a good choice: the top of the dome provides a 360 degree panoramic view of Florence, being the highest point in the city. There was also a steady cool breeze on top, and I must have stayed up there and just gazed for close to an hour. My legs were also demanding some rest after the 463 steps to get up. On the way up and down, getting to see the interior frescos and stained glass windows up close was nice as well.
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