Art in Florence: the good, the bad and the ugly

We enjoyed our trip to the Uffizi Museum very much.  We weren't able to get advance tickets so we had to wait in line but we met a very nice couple from Australia and had a good time getting to know them a little.

The building is huge.  The top floor is where most of the art is and it is broken into three galleries.  Each gallery is essentially a long building and they are connected at one end.  The galleries consist of a long hall filled with sculpture and the rooms with paintings open up to the corridor.  We were halfway down the second corridor before we looked up and saw that the ceilings were all painted and that there were portraits lining all the walls along the top!

Way too much art to absorb in one visit - and quite possibly a lifetime.  I did enjoy the contrast between the sculptures - which were mostly Greek or Roman - and the paintings which were mostly Renaissance.  Bill commented that the sculptures of 'elderly men' didn't look all that elderly to him :-)

I cannot tell the difference between good art and great art.  Some of the paintings I enjoyed the most were not the ones that received a lot of prominent placement or attention in the audio guide.

Toward the end there were a couple of paintings that were in the 'Dutch master' style and it was refreshing to see something different.

After our visit to these galleries, we spent some time having a refreshing drink at a very nice rooftop garden/coffee shop in the museum.  It was nice to see across the rooftops of Florence.

But...when we were pretty much pooped and ready to go, we started following the 'exit' signs only to be led through a maze of additional galleries.  By the time we got out I felt like I was in a twilight zone episode entitled 'the revenge of the medicis'.

After we left the building, I realized I had left my new hat (!) in the restroom near the rooftop coffee shop. There was no way I was going back for it (assuming they would even have let me do so).  But I missed it all day today.

Next we crossed the Pontiveechy Bridge.  This bridge is covered with jewelry stores - apparently it has been for centuries.  I thought it would be fun to look and perhaps purchase something small here but I was surprised to see so much really boring, not very attractive jewelry.  All very traditional and encrusted with stones (and therefore probably expensive).  But none of it was interesting or attractive to me.  I guess my taste in jewelry is more modern.  Probably a good thing - I certainly don't need to be spending any more money on this trip!

I did step into a leather store and find a new purse, though.  It is very attractive and a significant improvement over the purse I have been carrying around for almost a decade now.  Bill tells me that I need to stop looking at purses now that I bought one but that isn't the way shopping works for me.  So I continue to browse and come to the conclusion that the one I got is the best one out there :-)