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Published: January 9th 2016
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Hi everyone
We are currently on a train from Florence heading to Fiumicino airport in Rome. It's. A cold foggy day but sitting on a train going about 250km an hour the landscape is pretty much a blur.
Florence is such a cultured place with many museums containing priceless artworks by Botticelli and Da Vinci to name a couple. Peter went to four mind blowing galleries and museums. I only managed the enormous Uffuzi before succumbing again to the dreaded lurgy. I'm sorry to say Mam that I sniffed my way around Rome until the damp finally got me and I spent a couple of days in bed with a cold.
Before I got sick we visited a huge Boboli statue garden, and then climbed and the top of the hill in the middle for views of Florence. The hill was quite steep as you can see from the photo. Yes, I thought I was going to die on the way up!
We lucked in that day because museums have free entry on the first Sunday of the month. Even more amazing was the size (small) of the crowds. For example we stood in a
queue to get into the Uffuzi for about an hour. In summer you can wait for 3 hours or more.
The
Uffizi Gallery covers an area of about 8000 sq.m and contains one of the most important collections of art of all times, including classical sculpture and paintings on canvas and wood by 13th to 18th century Italian and foreign schools. The Gallery of the Uffizi was also the first museum ever to be opened to the public. The owners, the Medici family granted permission to visit it on request from the year 1591. Its four centuries of history make the Uffizi Gallery the oldest museum in the world.
The artwork ranged from Greek and Roman statues to medieval to modern and from da Vinci to Giotto and Botticelli. I really liked the frescoed ceilings. Most of them seem to be chaotic and jam packed full of cherubs, Saints, animals, soldiers, flowers,birds and anything else you can think of. I guess if I was going to spend years painting a ceiling, I'd do random stuff too.
The Duomo, Baptistery and Giotto's Bell Tower were all visited by peter. The bell tower finished 500 years before
Queensland became a separate colony was truly a huge climb of over 400 steps. Peter also went to the academia to see the statue of David which is 18 feet tall. Apparently you get a very good view of his legs. Just kidding! He looked very lifelike and bright underneath his specially built skylight. You couldn't see too much evidence of damage from the 1850's when his left arm was pulled off in a riot.
David's statue also looked so much better than the copy He saw in Indooroopilly shopping town in the 1970's. That one was a bit more modest: he had a fig leaf strategically placed. We are now at Rome airport waiting to board our flight to London to go and see the Willows.
I'm sure Bessie will have grown since I last saw her. I hope we can fit in a spot of shoe shopping. That's always great fun!
The airport security queue was very long and boring until I spotted a dog (chihuahua) who was travelling on a flight to Mexico. I haven't seen a dog go on to a flight as a passenger before and there was much speculation in the
queue about whether the dog would go in the overhead locker or under the seat. Or perhaps it had its own seat? It certainly didn't show its passport at immigration.
Said dog didn't get through the security scanner straight away. Security sent it back to have it's metal identity tag removed. The Italian family approached all this with great nonchalance unlike the security guards. There was much discussion and input from supervisors about how to deal with the dog. Thank goodness it didn't have an accident or I could see the poor thing being turfed out. Ah, things you see when you least expect them!
We have spent about 3 weeks in Italy on this trip and it's been quite an experience: from alley ways and canals in Venice, to the magical lights of Genoa, to the layers of history and religion in Rome and the sophistication of Florence. I was enchanted by Rome and Florence really appealed to Peter. We did so much in those three weeks. More than I dreamt was ever possible.
Amongst a series of lifetime experiences, seeing the Pope and being in the Sistine Chapel were the most amazing to me. Seeing
paintings done by Da Vinci and Botticelli were up there too. We visited countless churches, in Venice, Genoa, Rome and Florence. They were amazing and well populated by worshippers.
Italy is truly a country where the religion is part of everyday life and so evident. Sandy's Catholic roots bubbled to the surface in Italy, as you can see, she has turned into a Pope groupie!
Love sandy and peter xx
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