This morning I was finally able to run again, it was the first morning in almost a week that either we weren't traveling or it wasn't raining. It had rained before I went outside but at least I saw a break in the rain.
Robyn's plan for today was museum's, the Uffizi Gallery, Galileo, and the Pitti Palace. We had a scheduled time for the Uffizi so we walked around in the Piazza della Signoria which is in front of the Uffizi and contains many statues bot modern and several centuries old. The Uffizi was created by the di Medici family as a gallery to hold the many statues they had taken from Rome, it grew into a full art and sculpture gallery. On the piazza were two statues by contemporary Belgian artist Jan Fabre, one was called the Man Measuring the Clouds, I thought it was a tribute to band directors since it looked like a director about to start band rehearsal. Oh well what do I know, not a whole lot. Another sculpture was one done by Giambologna in the 16th century for the di Medici's called the Rape of the Sabine Woman. It is a depiction from 8th century bc of Roman men who would abduct women from the nearby Sabine area as their wives. The word rape was derived from a Latin word meaning abduct. So this is actually the abduction of the Sabine woman. The statue was sculpted from one piece of marble and is incredibly detailed, this also shows as with Michelangelo's David how during the Renaissance artist were obsessed with the perfection of the human body. While we walking around the piazza a procession came through that was obviously honoring Italian soldiers from various past conflicts, sort of a VFW parade.
As it got closer to our time to enter the Uffizi it of course started raining. I have become very expert at getting the umbrellas out of the backpack and opening them, it is now second nature on this trip.The Uffizi is impressive in the amount of art work that has been acquired, much of it by the di Medici's from the artists themselves. It is not as impressive as the Louvre or even the D'Orsay but there is a nice collection of art. Robyn of course took pictures of just everything, she was back in her element. I am going to show only a few. The first is another Giambologna sculpture of Hercules and Nessus fighting. In Greek mythology Hercules was son of Zeus and the gatekeeper of Olympus and Nessus was a centaur who had abducted Hercules wife (Hercules is the western name the Greeks referred to him as Heracles). There was also a bust of Socrates that dated to the 4th century bc. We also saw these statues that Robyn said looked like they were doing the Hustle from Saturday Night Fever. The paintings that we saw included works by Michelangelo; Botticelli including his famous Birth of Venus; Rembrandt; and finally Leonardo da Vinci. The da Vinci was one of his early works painted when he was approximately 20. On the top floor of the museum there is actually a set of window that provide an excellent view of the Arno river and Florence. Robyn took a picture of the Ponte Vecchi, which is oldest bridge in Florence dating to the 14th century. It has shops on the bridge which was common for bridges during that time period. When I looked outside when we were on the third floor of the Uffizi, it was not raining, when we finished and left it was pouring rain, of course. At that point since it was nearby we made the decision to go to the Galileo Museum which is on the back side of the Uffizi. The di Medici's were very interested in science and this museum contains many of the scientific devices that they acquired and were acquired later by the museum. The most interesting were two of Galileo's telescopes, they also had his right thumb, index finger, and middle finger on display. These were removed when his body was reburied and ended up here, have no further explanation. I have also included a picture of a optical illusion painting, there are two different images the second is visible in the mirror at the top of the picture. When we exited the museum it of course was raining, we ducked into a little café for lunch. When we came out it actually was not raining. So we took the time to walk to the Pitti Palace which was the home of the sitting ruling family of Florence, first the di Medici's and then the Lorraine family. This is now an art museum containing works by Rubens, van Dyke, and Raffael. As I was going through it everything looked the same, paintings were of Madonna and Child, the Crucifixion, the Nativity. I was tired but Robyn was determined to go through it so we did. I am not including any of the photos she took in the museum. When we did come out it was not raining, but that didn't last for long. After a long day I was just ready to go to bed. When we got back to the hotel I looked on line and found out the air traffic controllers strike was called off, however there was still a train operators strike. Fortunately our train was going at least to Lyon. Unfortunately we are supposed to meet Melanie in Lyon tomorrow and her train was cancelled. After several phone calls she decided to book a direct flight to Lyon on Vueling Airlines which is the low-cost partner of Iberia. What a day.