Wednesday, July 13, 1983
After an early breakfast we hurried
to the Galleria dell’Accademia, arriving about 8:40. There was already a line,
but not terribly long. Marsha got in line and I had time to mail our postcards
at the post office before the Accademia opened at 9:00. We paid the 3,000
ITL/$2 to see David, who was already visible.
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| Galleria dell'Accademia ticket |
But we were directed into the rooms of paintings that we studiously studied. We went down the aisle to see four of Michelangelo’s unfinished prisoners or slaves, meant for the tomb of Pope Julius II. They have been likened to classical statues, not only because of their style, but because they lack limbs and heads like the classical statues in the Louvre! (We saw two of the series of prisoners in Paris at the Louvre.) There was also an unfinished St Matthew, meant for the Duomo. Then an unfinished Pietà with Mary and Magdalene.
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| Michelangelo's Pietà |
And finally the immense, and fully finished, heroic David. The key is his right hand holding a stone.
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| Michelangelo's David |
We saw where the left arm had been broken into three pieces. The torso is supposed to be classic Greek, but the head and hands are rough and tough Tuscan. While Marsha examined David closely, I walked into the two side wings to look over the paintings. To the right were famous names, but none to the left. I continued to another room with older paintings and altarpieces. I returned to Marsha, who told me about a young blind man who had come in and wanted to touch David. Guards stood all around to keep people from touching the statue, but upon understanding this guy was blind, they allowed him to reach up the pedestal where he could just reach David’s foot.
After leaving the Accademia, we went to the Duomo, where the interior frescoed dome was completely covered in screened scaffolding. We saw the stained glass windows in the chancel done by Donatello, Paolo Uccello, Andrea da Castagno, and Lorenzo Ghiberti. The chancel had a marble balustrade and a Benedetto da Maiano crucifix. Doors to either side of the altar had Luca della Robbia terracottas in the tympanium showing the Resurrection and Ascension. This chancel is where the Pazzi conspiracy tried to kill Giuliano and Lorenzo Medici as they bowed their heads for the consecration of the Host. Lorenzo managed to escape.
We couldn’t go into the transept, as only the confessionals were open and guards kept out the tourists. I suppose I could have gone to confession to see the frescoes more closely. From afar on the left we saw a fresco depicting Dante explaining the Divine Comedy (Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise) to Florence. Closer to the door were two nearly identical frescoes of equestrian statues. On the right was Uccello’s fresco of John Hawkwood, a mercenary general who worked for Florence. The Republic had promised him a statue, but they were too cheap to spend the money, so had a painting done of a statue for him. On the left was Castagno’s equestrian fresco.
Next we went to the Bargello Museum, paying 2,000 ITL/$1.30 to enter.
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| Bargello ticket |
The Bargello was once a prison, then the residence of the Bargello/Constable. We walked around the courtyard to the left, passing various reclining figures on sarcophagi. We continued upstairs, passing through a couple rooms of figurines and weapons, armor, etc. We arrived at the large hall displaying works by Donatello, including St George, St John the Baptist as a boy, then a youth (or else as a youth and then a young man!), and especially his effeminate David. Plus another David. There were models done by Ghiberti and Brunelleschi of the Sacrifice of Abraham, a panel for the Baptistery bronze door competition.
In the next area were bronze animals by Giambologna meant for the Medici garden. We saw the famously posed Mercury, better known as the FTD florist man, by Giambologna, as well as his little Rape of the Sabines. Up more stairs to the room of della Robbia terracottas. The St George for the Orsanmichele was apparently being restored. We may have seen a lot of Benvenuto Cellini models, but only recognized Perseus holding Medusa’s head. Spotted another statue of David, this time by Andrea del Verrocchio. We went down to the courtyard and around to the left to reach the ground floor area highlighting the Michelangelo pieces. First there were works of his school, then Ammannati’s Leda and Swan. Then Michelangelo’s Bacchus, Brutus, and the unfinished Apollo.
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| Michelangelo's Bacchus |
There was also the Tondo Pitti with Mary reading to Christ and St John the Baptist, where we pretended we could see the various carving alphabets used in this relief!
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| Michelangelo's Tondo Pitti |
There was also Giambologna’s bust of Michelangelo and sculptures by other artists.
We headed down several blocks to Casa Buonarotti, designed by Michelangelo for his nephew, and paid the 2,500 ITL/$1.60 entry fee.
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| Casa Buonarotti ticket |
The ground floor rooms contained the collection of Michelangelo’s great-nephew, Michelangelo the Younger. In the first room was another unfinished prisoner sculpture of Michelangelo. In another were Hercules and Cacus. In the following rooms were paintings, chests, and knickknacks. A front room had several portraits of Michelangelo, including a self-done sketch of himself wearing a turban. Next we went upstairs where nearly all the rooms were lined with copies of all his sketches. In a back room was a deteriorating torso, thought to be a model of the river god meant for the Medici Chapel. Another room had more paintings. A central room had the wooden carving of a cross for the Santo Spirito Church, where the head faces the opposite direction as the legs. In the front room was the Battle of the Centaurs on one wall, a writhing mass of bodies in relief. On the other wall was the Madonnas of the Steps, where again, we only see the back of Christ’s head. A long side gallery was painted as a memorial to Michelangelo. One room had paintings showing events in his life and honors he received. Another room had Buonarotti family portraits. The guard asked Marsha in highly accented English is she wanted him to explain about Michelangelo. She answered “Ja, ja,” which threw him a bit, so he said asked again. She repeated “Ja, ja,” so he went on with his spiel about Michelangelo being born prematurely when his mother fell off a horse. His accent was so bad, it was difficult to understand him. The guard also told Marsha he was born in the U.S. and lived there until he was 10 years old. We continued to the room of architectural drawings, then we were done.
We took a side street to Piazza Santa Croce, and entered the church, walking down the left aisle past many tombs and over tombstones. The chapel at the end of the left transept had Donatello’s Crucifix (which Brunelleschi tried to surpass in Santo Maria Novella?). It is supposed to be modeled on the figure of a plowman, and it did have a rougher face than most Christ figures. The chancel was frescoed by Agnolo Gaddi. The first chapel to the right was the Peruzzi Chapel with a tempura of the Life of St Francis by Giotto. You could see at his death, the saint was checking his stigmata. Tempura survived less well than fresco in the next chapel, the Bardi Chapel, with the Life of St John by Giotto. The following chapel had the tomb of the daughter and wife of Joseph Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon. We tried to go in the Pazzi Chapel, but it was closed on Wednesdays. We went through the sacristy and gift shop, and saw displays of restoring a painting there in the hall. We checked out a couple more side chapels, highly frescoed. Going back along the right aisle, we saw Donatello’s bas relief of the Annunciation near the fifth altar. We noted Galileo Galilei’s tomb on the opposite, side, then on this side we saw Niccolò Machiavelli’s tomb, Dante Alighieri’s memorial, and finally Michelangelo’s tomb.
We left and crossed the piazza to go down a back street to Via Isole delle Stinche and the famous ice cream parlor of Vivoli’s to have ice cream. We hiked down to the river, crossed Ponte alle Grazie and went along the river to the Torre di San Niccolò, and then began zigzagging up the hillside to Piazzale Michelangelo. There was a huge copy of Michelangelo’s David in the center, and a hazy view down on the city of Florence and across to Fiesole.
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| View of Florence from Piazzale Michelangelo |
We went to a café where we had large drinks, and it was pleasantly cool where we sat in the shade. We continued hiking uphill, past the San Salvatore al Monte church to the Minato al Monte. Unfortunately it was closed, not to reopen until 15:30, hours later! We could take in the green and white marble façade with the sparkling mosaics in mostly gold. From afar we could better see the tower that Michelangelo defended by covering it with mattresses in 1530 during a siege of the city resulting in the Medicis being reinstated. Across a side valley, we could see Forte Belvedere with the Medici villa that was their fortress and treasury. We decided against continuing to hike to Forte Belvedere, instead going down a long stairway towards Palazzo Pitti. We stopped to window shop, and check out a gift shop and a stationery shop with marbled paper, where Marsha bought a couple notebooks. We found the Palazzo Pitti had just closed the ticket office at 13:30!
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| Palazzo Pitti, entrance to Buontalenti Grotto |
The courtyard was set up for a Martha Graham ballet. The palace was built by the banker family of Pitti, but later purchased by the Medici family. Next we tried the Santo Spirito Church that was closed, as was the Santa Maria del Carmine Church. All would reopen at 15:30. So we decided to go to the hotel to rest.
At about 15:30, we started off again, going first to the Ognissanti Church with the Luca della Robbia Coronation of Mary over the main door. We went to the refectory on the left to see signs pointing to Ghirlandaio’s Last Supper painting in the cloister. But the cloister was empty with locked doors. We entered the church and in a chapel to the left was the robe supposedly worn by St Francis when he received the stigmata. There were frescoes in the sacristy.
We left to cross the river and go back to Santa Maria del Carmine. We entered to go to the Brancacci Chapel in the right transept. It was partially covered by scaffolding, but you could still see some of the frescoes including Massacio’s The Tribute. On the far left, St Peter finds money in a fish’s mouth as in the center, Christ is directing St Peter, and on the far right St Peter is paying the money. Massacio was interested in form, not beauty and color, but the painting had both beauty and color, too. Massacio also did the Banishment of Adam & Eve, St Peter Baptizing, and in the lower part, St Peter begging, healing the sick, and preaching. A friend of Michelangelo, Francesco Granacci, posed as the Emperor’s nephew raised from the dead. The sacristy had more frescoes, and then we went down into the cloisters. One room had an exhibit explaining how frescoes were made and compared different techniques that brought out or hid colors and tones. The process was shown step-by-step. We went through the cloisters and back out through the church.
We walked over to Santo Spirito, where supposedly Michelangelo did dissections in the monastery infirmary! We searched the church for Filippo Lippi’s Madonna. There were Madonnas all over the place and several in Lippi’s style. We figured his must be the one behind the railing where it was better protected.
We crossed back over the river and went to Santa Trinità Church. In the Sassetti Chapel to the far right of the chancel, we found the Ghirlandaio fresco of the Life of St Francis, and above the altar, his Adoration of the Shepherds. It was very dark and we didn’t have the proper change to turn on the lights. Then we saw a tourist making his way from one chapel to another, turning on the lights. We waited at the Sassetti Chapel, but when he got there, he exited out the door. We saw him cross the street and look in a shop window. We wandered around listening to a monk playing the organ. Then this tourist came back in the church and went into the sacristy. He was gone a long time, before coming out to the Sassetti Chapel. He stood there reading his book. We were tired of waiting and started to leave, when he finally put in the coins to light up the chapel! We hurried back to get a look at the Sassetti Chapel, then wanted to give the guy money. I was too chicken, but Marsha went to press the money in the guy’s hands. But he refused it and coins scattered all over. It turned out he was American. So we were able to enjoy the frescoes and paintings.
We walked over to the Mercato Nuove or della Paglia/New or Straw Market with the roofed-over stalls selling straw and leather goods. We found cheap postcards there. We walked over to Piazza della Signoria and down the street of sidewalk artists to see caricature artists at work. Then to the Ponte Vecchio, where Marsha bought Murano glass picture frames. We walked up Via Por Santa Maria, passing the New Market on the south side where we found the bronze suckling pig that looks like a boar. We overheard someone say you donate money and rub his shiny nose for luck. So we did!
We followed Via Calzaiolo in search of Perche No/”Why not” ice cream shop. Marsha spotted it down a side street, so we had more ice cream! We went to the Baptistery to find it was closed again. We returned to the hotel for showers, before going down to Piazza San Marco where I had heard you catch the #7 bus to Fiesole. We bought bus tickets in a gelateria/ice cream shop.
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| Florence bus ticket |
We waited about 20 minutes for a crowded bus that arrived at 19:45. We rode through the streets of Florence, then up and out of the city, then just up and up the hillside. Already we had view down onto Florence before being deposited in Piazza Mino da Fiesole. We checked the bus schedule for the return trip, then began looking around Fiesole where Leonardo da Vinci’s favorite activity was flying off its hills! The relatively small and simple Cattedrale di Fiesole was on one side of the square. We walked up a steep back street to a terrace for a view of Florence below.
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| View from Fiesole |
On the right as we climbed was the Church
of Sant’Alessandro, built on the site of a temple. On the top of the hill was
the monastery of St Francis, but it was closed. We returned to the Piazza and
went behind the Cattedrale in hopes of seeing a San Romano by della Robbia. No
luck.
The Bandini Museum was closed, and the Roman Amphitheater was open, but
open for an evening performance. We returned to the piazza for a place to eat.
There was along line at the pizzeria, so we thought to splurge for a steak at
the hotel restaurant, and eat on the terrace. But they were fully booked. We
crossed the square to Ristorante Mario to sit in the back in their enclosed
terrace. We were able to watch the sky turn great shades of blue! Marsha
ordered a quarter liter of white wine and we had mineral water. Marsha had the
green gnochetti and I had tortellini in broth. Next we both had the Bistecca fiorentina/Beefsteak
Florentine. It cost 2,300 ITL/$1.50 per hettogram, and we had no idea what a
hettogram was! (N.B. A het’togram is 100 grams.) We couldn’t even say how much
we wanted. So we did as recommended, we shared a portion. We each ended up with
about a pound of an inch-thick steak grilled over a fire. It was great, but we
were shaking in our boots, fearful of what the bill would be! Marsha finished
with a cappuccino. Our waiter kept tossing his head to get his hair out of his
eyes. Well, our bill arrived, and we were very much relieved that the cost was
less than the night before, and this time we had lots to eat. The total was
43,120 ITL/$28.
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| Ristorante Mario dinner bill |
We caught the 22:25 bus
which took us to the train station in Florence, and from there we returned to
the hotel.
