Florence Oct 30-31

Friday Oct 30
What timing!  First thing this morning I read an email from friend Jackie telling me to try to see if I could visit the newly renovated museum at the Duomo-- the cathedral. Our group would visit the Duomo this morning, and because of Jackie's message, I asked our tour leader if our Duomo tour pass also included the museum. She said " I don't know but I'll check."  Well, it turned out the museum was reopening TODAY and yes we could go there!! More about that in a minute...

We had a private tour of the Duomo with a man whose father had been a marble craftsman for the Duomo!  Immediately I noticed his speech was different & I wondered if he was a German speaker.  No, turns out I was hearing the Florentine accent.  The Duomo 's architecture is unique & its history is too.

He next took us to the Baptisry next to the Duomo. And finally he took us to the marble workmens' studio to show us some of the techniques of working with marble. This was very interesting!  The men were not working today so we had the place to ourselves.

This was a very active day because after lunch we visited an important museums: theGalleria dell' Accademia.  It's  the home of the huge statue of David by Michelangelo. Our art historian guide led us and added fascinating details about the art as well as the people.  This trip--- thanks to our lecturers -- has brought art to life for me more than ever. I'm seeing connections between artists & the history / culture of the various eras and can actually identify Italian works that I'd only superficially been exposed to before. ( I never took an art history course).

Fortunately we had some free time to have a short visit at the new Duomo museum. It was excellent! It displayed the history  of the church including parts from the earlier structure.  I appreciated an audio visual presentation chronicling the evolution of Florence.

Tonight was a special dinner & show held as a banquet at the Medici Villa.  We were greeted by Renaissance musicians in period costumes & were entertained by them & folk dancers. (Jackie--I got pix & videos for you!). A " court jester" provided comedy to the evening & managed to pull up most people in the audience at one time or another for a game or dance.  Very entertaining!

Sat. October 31
Happy Halloween!  It's nearly dinner time & I saw almost  no signs of Halloween here ( but I did just eat some chocolate ). When we go for dinner I'll be curious if anything changes after dark.
We began the day with an outstanding lecture by a professor about the Medici family & history/ art of  Florence. She told us what to look for this afternoon at the Uffizi Gallery and encouraged us not to try to see it all ( thanks) but rather focus on certain works. It worked!  Her presentation was so effective, we all found the critical works on our own, in a self guided tour. Wow!
We also visited the Bargello National Museum. Whew!!

This is a crash course in Italian art history !

Off to dinner now.
Jane