Saturday 6.23.07
On Saturday, we went to Firenze (Florence) to visit the Duomo and the Uffizi. The trip was long, but it was well worth it. The Duomo had lots of paintings in the main hall including the painting depicting Dante and the Divine Comedy by Domenico da Michalino.
The Uffizi had mostly renaissance paintings and sculptures. Most of the art looks like the same guy painted them because the colors and styles were basically the same. There were lots of dark tones and pudgy people. There were some paintings that I saw in our Florence guide book that I actually saw in the Uffizi. For example the Battle of San Romano (by Paolo Uccello) depicting Florence’s victory over Siena.
The other piece that we saw was Michelangelo’s David, but it wasn’t “the real David”. The sculpture at the Uffizi is a copy. Italy is freakishly obsessed with David in a way that is disturbing. Michelangelo choose to depict a nude David going to slay the Philistine giant Goliath. Here’s the thing, nowhere in the bible does it say that David was nude when he did this. In fact, if you read the actual account in the bible at 1 Samuel 17: 38-48, you actually find out that David was completely dressed for battle. So why did Michelangelo portray David in the nude? The thing I that really don’t understand is the fact that Italians almost deify David and his nakedness. It is depicted on t-shirts and boxer shorts and all kinds of paraphernalia that is probably meant for tourists. They have turned a very important historical bible character and made him into a phallic symbol that they knowingly or unknowingly worship.
From the outside, the Uffizi looks like two buildings joined by a hallway or bridge on the southern end. The Florence guide book suggests taking two days, if possible, to see the entire Uffizi. But for us, that really wasn’t possible. Tiffany and I wandered throughout the rooms, but somehow miss the Michelangelo and Botticelli rooms. We did see a lot of nice sculptures in the hallways, including the bust of Vespasiano. It is a multi-colored marble sculpture that was very realistic.
After the Uffizi, we had to make our way back to the bus station. But first we went to Ponte Vecchio, which is a bridge that has a lot of jewelry stores. This is where you get the gold and silver that people talk about when they talk about shopping in Florence. After the Ponte Vecchio, we started walking back to the bus station. Somehow we wandered into an open air market that had lots of purses, scarves, t-shirts and other stuff that a tourist would like.
