We were here for three days a few years back and we decided to do some extra explorations of the place before leaving it forever. I wanted to see the Boboli Gardens behind the Pitti Palace and perhaps the Church of Santa Croce where Michaelangelo, one of the Medici's, Galileo, Dante' and other famous Italians are buried. Here's a picture of it, and a couple from inside. Tony - Dirk wanted you to see this ceiling.
This is Michaelangelo's shrine...the great man. Dirk thinks he was the Pope's bum boy, but that's Dirk's take on it, not mine. Below is a picture of the forecourt of the Boboli Gardens, behind the Pitti Palace. Those early Italian aristocrats sure knew how to spend a lire' or two million million. There were some large sculptures in front and through the gardens that were impressive...size was a consideration too.
As expected, Florence had plenty of people thronging the streets, but nothing to get annoyed about. It's summer and the tourist season is in full swing, us being two of a couple of hundred thousand. We had a room in a hostel not far from the train station and not far from the river Arno. We could walk in any direction and be in the middle of things and every day was filled with plenty of expeditions around the back streets of the city. .I could show you crowds, but some characters out the back seemed more interesting.
Whoops, there's that Dirka fella again.
Florence has its history oozing from the stones you walk on, the walls you pass between. But for the look of the people being in current clothing, the cars everywhere, and the shops with electricity and looking pretty suave, you could still be in Medieval times. I guess it would have smelled pretty bad and the streets would have been full of muck and horse droppings and garbage, human detritus etc. ...oh, and the occasional heretic being burned to death in a pyre in a square, etc.
This was taken on our last night in Florence when we had what we thought was a reasonably priced meal (10 euros per plate) and all was very wonderful, - dining majestically in the square where the statue of David was first displayed (exposed) - to the public, where the Sheriffs of Florence kept the peace by scaring the bejesus out of the locals by some very effecting torturing, and the populace kept apprised of all the council proclamations.
There were one or two famous burnings here too...just across the way behind Dirka, the fanatical priest Girolamo Savonarola, who burned books and preached hell and damnation for all the party loving Florentines - was himself burned for being a party pooper by a powerful Borgia who became Pope. Try saying all that in a hurry.
The crimes against the public in this square continue to this day, as the unsuspecting who dine with all this history all around get lulled into a historical stupor, along with the outrageously overpriced wine in very small bottles. The waiter had been so attentive and terrific, I had been thinking of thanking him with a prodigious smacker on the cheek, but after making off with a self awarded tip and not returning, we both thought a smack in the gob would have been more appropriate.
.We took off from Florence and got to Pisa by train the next day. So its on to there .....
No comments:
Post a Comment