Flashing in Florence

I've just re-read my last post about the grand tour, Rome and the train trip to Catania and it is very long so I think I'll try a short series on Florence, Catania and Modica ferry to Malta.

Florence deserves more than a one-day visit but we made it a full day.  The train trip from Rome was a good way of seeing some of the Tuscany countryside and we decided that if we return one day we would stay in the countryside and take the train up to the city.  Carol and I have got quite good at train travel and we can spot a tourist place to get a walking map of a new city in the blink of an eye.  I had no agenda other than to see the Ponte Vecchio and Carol had eyes only for David so we worked out a stroll from the train station through central areas with palazzos, churches and duomos to the Galleria dell Academia.  Florence was crowded.  Rome had not prepared us for the squash of Florence with groups of tourists dutifully following their tour leader holding aloft the distinguishing flag.  The queue for David was very long and we had no choice but to join it and crawl forward for two hours chatting to the people patiently waiting with us.  Carol kept finding tips in the Lonely Planet guide on how to avoid the queue by joining a group or by booking in advance, but somehow the waiting was all part of the experience and I enjoyed the people watching as you can see from the photo that heads this post.

The galleries leading towards David had plenty of amazing things but somehow I have forgotten the succession of sculptures and paintings.  I think there was also a very interesting display of old musical instruments.  When we got to David, I felt like I wanted to prolong the anticipation and dutifully looked slowly around all the sculptures in the side galleries before finally giving my full attention to the huge, white marble man.  Certainly his head and hands seem disproportionately large and his penis is very small but Carol assured me that there is a reason for this.  The overlarge bits are because it was designed to be viewed from some distance below the plinth on which it was located.  The small bits are because it was considered ignoble and coarse to be hung like a horse.  What I found most amazing was to be able to walk all round him and there was even an interactive video next to him that enabled the viewer to see each part close up and all round.  We spent some time trying to work out just how a slingshot works because he has a kind of strap going all down his back from the hand at his shoulder and he is holding a stone in his other hand.  We also tried to see the difference in the two sides of his face from boyish innocence to determined manhood but it wasn't as clear as we were told.

Afterwards, we walked down to the river n our way to the Ponte Vecchio.  Like Rome, there are statues everywhere and I have quite a few pictures of imitation Davids.  There was also a piazza with statues of the great artists in alcoves in the walls and beneath them artists displaying their paintings.  We walked across the Ponte Vecchio with its old jewelry shops and then took the next bridge back across so I could get the classic photo showing the bridge, the houses and balconies on one side, the cloudy sky and the reflections in the water.  By then, we were running out of time to walk back up to the station and catch our train back to Rome.