Duomo, Uffizi, chez Brownings...

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I'm definitely more excited about the 3rd of those things! Anyway...

Last night I met some people (yay!), an Aussie who may be moving to London with a friend in Oxford (Janna), and an Indonesian who's been doing a masters in Paris (Ailsa). Janna knew of a good, cheap restaurant and we tried to find it, going in a massiv circle and getting lost, asking for directions and eventually finding the street. We didn't, however, find the restaurant, because there was one that looked really good before we got to it (if it still exists). So I had my first proper sit-down restaurant meal 😊 It was good, obviously! I had long fusili, the spirally one, with pepperoni and tomato sauce. I don't think I've had long spirals before!

This morning, having booked into the Uffizi at 11:15am, I went to the Duomo. I've already seen the outside many times, but I wanted to go inside to see the (apparently) biggest religious fresco in the world. I got there just after it opened and there was alreayd a queue! But it went pretty quickly. It's a big cathedral, but nowhere near as interesting as the facade. The fresco was the only interesting thing, pretty much! I think they have chapels which are cordoned off from the public, though.

I then went to the Uffizi gallery, with my reserved ticket - and there was a queue! Even for people who'd booked in avdvance! I saw the other one, and it was pretty non-moving, but only as long as the one I was in. I guess it took them a whoel lot longer to get through it, though. Once inside you go all the way up to the 2nd floor, which seems slightly counterintuitive, but my audioguide was very helpful on that point. The audioguide takes you through a very fast tour of all the rooms, so you enter the room number instead of the painting number, and it tells you about the most important works in that room. So sometimes it would say, "in front of you is X, explanation...and on the opposite wall is Y, explanation", without giving you time to walk across the floor to see the other painting! My method became to walk around the room and see all the paintings, then switch on the audioguide so I was already slightly familiar with what it was going to talk about. That didn't work so well in the Leonardo and Botticelli rooms which were really crowded, which was a bit of a shame. Still, it was really interesting! Such an impressive collection. And, given the time on my ticket, I stopped for lunch half-way through the gallery, and decided to pay more to sit down and have waiter service at a table in the very hot sun, with a view of the Palazzo Vecchio immediatly next door, and the Duomo and bell-tower and all the other very tall buildings further away. I had a lovely roasted veg focaccia and a cold beer, which was surprisingly good (even though I'd smuggled my bottle of water through the scanners...).

I was tired out by the Uffizi by about half past two, and moved on. In the Pitti Palace yesterday I saw paintings by Fra Fillipo Lippi, who was introduced to me by Robert Browning, and I suddenly had the thought that their house would be around here somewhere, and I should try to go see it. Well, I was right! And it's open for about three hours on Mondays, Weds and Fridays - lucky me! So I searched it out. It's a residential house still, and I had to ring a doorbell (as instructed by a sign), and someone opened the gate for me. I climbed up and there was a man working there who gave me some info and let me show myself round the three rooms laid out. Apparently there are people LIVING there, as in it's rented out, and they have an agreement with the Landmark trust to vacate it for the three hours three times a week when it's open to the public! It was pretty cool, they still had the original ceilings and fireplaces, and the walls of Robert's study had been restored. Their drawing room was the most interesting - it looked so homey and open! There were books of their poetry laid out, and a little guide explaining what they used the rooms for and which particular views or parts of the room were inspirations. Amazing!

This will probably be my last entry from Florence, as I'm just about to buy a reservation to move on to Cinque Terre tomorrow morning. I'm sad to leave, it's such a lovely city! Hopefully I'll be back...

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