Thoughts on the Uffizi 6-7-07 in Florence

It poured down rain today in Florence which made it the perfect day for hanging out in museums. Our creativity in getting in to the Uffizi was worth it ten times over. It is clear to see why it is THE museum in Florence and why it is also a sell out. We kicked off our visit by getting a surprise exibit of etchings by Albrecht Durer. It is without a doubt the most concentrated group of his work that either of us have seen and more than impressive in use of line, contrast, pattern and composition. His work ranged from not much larger than a postage stamp to the coup de gras in the last room that nearly took up the entire wall. Funny what artists you study in books and never give them much thought until seeing them in this format. He will be someone we both give time to in our classrooms. Of course we saw the Birth of Venus but perhaps its been on one too many t-shirts or mouse pads as it is certainly beautiful but we were both more taken with the Primavera. Botticelli's italian counterpart in the Renaissance is Pollaiolo and his work is almost as impressive. There was a large salon dedicated to both of these artists in the Uffizi. The only dissapointment in the museum is when we entered the original collection of the Medici's and the curator took the wrong page from the Pitti Palace. The works were dark, hung salon style and the lighting couldn't have been worse. They may as well of turned out the lights and given us all candle sticks to walk through. Speaking of lighting, that Tintoretto was something. Needless to say, we could go on and on about the amazing work in the Uffizi but instead we are going to create a link so you can check it out. By the time we left the Uffizi, the heavens had opened up and we had shorts on and only one umbrella between us. Thank God we had the good sense to duck into a pastry shop and just hang out and sample for about an hour. By the time we worked our way through the cannoli's and realized it was only getting worse out we decided to hail a cab. We did a quick change and set out on foot for the Duomo only to find the guide book was wrong about times and it was already closed. We stumbled past a small gallery dedicated to Leonardo Da Vinci and ducked in. It was great. They had commissioned an artist to replicate some of his inventions and most were interactive. It was great to see and a solid reminder to us of his genius.
We are drying out and about to grab some dinner. The college kids are having a party in the downstairs breakfast area, hosted by the hotel, so we decided not to hang around for that. Tomorrow we have to check a few boxes in order to say we have done it all. We are hoping for dry weather so we can make our list. Then Friday we are headed out on bikes to Chianti. This could either be wonderful or an entire blog dedicated to the misadventures of Lisa and Anne...we shall see... (Lisa)