I am very sad to leave Florence behind - two and a half days didn't really do it justice but we fit in everything that we could. Our first main day seeing the city was Thursday, my birthday, which was a gloriously sunny day in the high teens. Through our hotel, the excellent San Firenze Suites, we had made a reservation to go to the Uffizi Gallery, the famous art museum in the city. By doing this we had hoped up avoid the queues but even though half of Japan and plenty of Americans were in the city, doing their best to get in the way of every photo I tried to take, it wasn't really necessary as the lines weren't long at all. Still, an 11am meeting did at least get us out of bed although it was a little tight trying to squeeze a breakfast sandwich into the mix too. We originally discounted the first place we saw as the fillings looked a little exotic only to realise our mistake a day later when we had to stop there for dinner as there was no time to have a proper sit down meal. There were only 13 sandwiches available but they were made of the finest quality meats and cheeses, and that combinations even worked, which was my primary fear and why I had rejected it the previous day. Indeed the sandwiches were so good, we ended up getting two each and making it our main meal while the Tuscan wine out of a wooden crate was not bad for £2 per plastic cup. The lady behind the bar was really chatty and friendly, while the quality of food yet again made me wonder whether there is anywhere in Italy that does bad food. After my second sandwich - a roast pork, aubergine and mustard -my hands were somewhat sticky and she allowed me to use her own private bathroom, which was kind of her. The taps in the sink were operated by a foot pedal system, which is quite common here, and made you think you were playing the piano when actually you were washing your hands.
Another case in point regarding the quality food was my birthday meal at a local traditional eatery opposite the Ponte Vecchio. The Ponte Vecchio was built in 1345 and represents what the old London Bridge used to be like, with shops adorning either side, hanging over the river, clinging to the bridge desperately. These are predominantly goldsmiths so walking across the bridge just after it has turned dark when they are all still open is quite a magical experience, with gold gleaming everywhere from the light of the street lamps. It's almost a Christmassy scene while the local police, who may be special to the bridge, stand upon it as if guarding it, replete with their navy blue uniform and white helmets which rise up to form a Mohawk. We saw one trying to apprehend a young ruffian who was up to no good but he ran off the bridge and maybe out of the policeman's jurisdiction as we wasn't allowed to go beyond the river bank. Interestingly, Ponte Vecchio was the only bridge not destroyed by the Germans in WWII as they respected its beauty, meaning what we see today is the original. From the bridge you get a good view of the River Arno as it winds its way through the city, while you can also see the beautiful Ponte Santa Trinita which was blown up by the Germans and was faithfully restored to the original sixteenth century plans.
The San Firenze Hotel have been exceptionally good to us during our stay and have recommended some excellent places to eat. None more so than my birthday meal at Buca Dell'Orafo, a small basement eatery of about 10 tables. Many were occupied by Americans but there were enough Italians to know that this was a highly regarded place. We decided to skip wine in favour of beer following our mixing exploits the night before - neither of us had felt right during the day and I had needed to go to the bathroom on six separate occasions for wherever reason (we think it may be due to the abundance of good but very rich food and few vegetables) - and got a craft blond variety which was subtlety flavoured but pleasant enough. We opted to get starters, with Wolfie having gnocchi with sausages and me having a traditional soup containing white beans. It was luridly orange but very tasty, especially with the bread and olive oil, which is dark green here and of a single pressing, considered the best in the whole of Italy. The bread was the typical florentine type, containing no salt as salt was a luxury in days of yore. It's not even served with butter meaning it leaves a rather drying taste on the palate, which isn't aided by how hard and crusty it is. Thankfully the soup offered some dunking capability. For the main, we opted for bistecca alla Fiorentina, a huge chargrilled T-bone steak for which you pay by the kilogram. It's not inexpensive and is designed to be shared by two, but it truly was the finest dish I had ever had in my life. No number of superlatives could do this justice. Cooked in olive oil so it's crispy on the outside but rare in the middle, the succulent flavours shine through before the meat very literally melts in your mouth in a symphony of flavour. The thick juicy fat, which is left on, simply enhances the other flavours and although it was expensive at €69 between us, I have to say it was worth it. We both had it with creamy mashed potato and I have to say that it was the best meal I've ever had - I told the waiter and waitress as much and they were most delighted, particularly after finding out it was my birthday.
My birthday was made special by a range of people, not least the hotel themselves who not only provided me with the restaurant recommendation but had also allowed us to use their spa facilities at a discounted rate as it was my birthday. They gave us one third off so earlier that day we had booked a one-hour private session in their underground spa, just before we went out for dinner. After we had got back from a day of sightseeing, we had dressing gowns already in our room and when we convened downstairs at 7pm, the receptionist showed us around before leaving us to it. There was a bubble jet bath in which you lay and the jets massaged the sides of your body, a sauna and a Turkish steam room, along with lounge chairs and tea and coffee making facilities. The receptionist asked if we wanted music on, which we did so we had calming pan pipe music, gentle aromas and candlelight filtering through as we relaxed. It was a great way to spend an hour, particularly for someone like me who really struggles to relax, and the range of fruit and herbal teas really did the trick as we lay on the loungers for our final 15 minutes. There was a big LED clock on the wall to guide us but even that strong red tone didn't stress me as we shared a pot of herbal infusions tea, not something I would usually choose but something that really hit the spot after our treatment. At one point I feared I had broken the bubble bath but it was just draining water and I needed to add to it by adding some more from a little fountain provided. It was around this time that Wolfie found a new love for bidets and he keeps encouraging me to blast my arse with water as is common on the continent. Even with the bidet towel I'm not sure I really want to go through with it, I'm not sure I would like a moist ring while I'm out and about (although after long days of walking it could alleviate the inevitable ass chafe which inevitable occurs).
After our meal, we opted to try and find a few craft beer bars that the guys in BrewDog had suggested to us on the Wednesday. Both were on the south side of the river so we had to cross the Ponte Vecchio, now pretty desolate and eerie with all of the shops boarded up and in relative darkness. Still this did allow us to admire the beautiful architecture and fountain right in the middle, while the street lights and the buildings reflected in the Arno were quite romantic. The first bar we went to was attached to a microbrewery called Archea. They had three of four of their beers on tap and we tried two of them, a 5.5% IPA which was perfectly pleasant and a 7.8% double-hop which was a little too sweet for my tastes. Unfortunately the bar was rammed with the hip, trendy and American meaning we were standing until halfway down our pints when a couple who were being extremely lovey-dovey, including the man bouncing the woman on his lap, left, probably for sexual relations. We grabbed their stools but were buffeted by people as they walked past, forcing us to drink our beers and leave as quickly as possible. It was a shame as the music there was just right and the orange colour would have provided a great space for a drink, it was a shame it was just too busy. Again, being gay, we got overlooked by the flower salesman who was touting his flowers to any man with a woman vaguely near him. One of the benefits of being gay I guess.
The other bar was some distance away but as it was my birthday and it was only 11.30pm, we didn't want to cut the night short and we thought we would see some more of the city. There was a rock bar we saw called One Eye Jack, which even had a huge BrewDog shield underneath the bar, but we feared that this was a little rough and walked on. Our destination was a bar called Diorama about 20 minutes walk away in the Zona Porta San Frediano district of Florence. Walking up there, we past a few bars with nightlife before descending into suburbia, noting at least the buses were still running should we get lost or the worst happens. In the end, it was straight down the street and we soon found it, a bar very much akin to The Sparrow in Bradford. Indeed the range of drinks was quite similar and it must be noted that there were craft beers from the UK there in abundance. We had a strong one with a Japanese name of about 7.5% while the barman, bald with glasses and wearing a red jumper, thought I wanted to go outside so opened the door for me allowing me to leave (Wolfie was in the toilet by this point). I sat out there for a few minutes, spied a recently vacated green table and went back inside, where we watched the ski jumping on Eurosport and enjoyed our beers. The bar started to thin out and as it was getting late, we decided to head back. On the way, we spied the old town walls of San Frediano as they touched the Arno River, which were turreted like a castle and built in the fourteenth century. There was still an old gate, now permanently open, where the cars now go while on the river bank there's a little aedicule built in 1856 in which a fresco of the Pietra from the early sixteenth century is preserved. I think this is on display behind chicken wire and visible on the street but I'm not sure - the fresco behind the chicken wire is impressive though. Having followed the wall to the river, we opted to walk down the river back to the hotel as the lights glimmering in the calm water was quite a beautiful sight. It was a little cold but this didn't stop us from enjoying the view, while I spotted another grand church by the riverside which I think is no longer being used on Piazza del Cestello. There are many bridges over the river, the ones this side newer and more utilitarian, although there is one which has a car park on either side of the carriageway. This was quite interesting to see, two rows of parked cars on a bridge either side of the road. In the dark, as we approached it, I thought it was one very long traffic jam at an unfortunate hour, it was only as we got to the bridge that we saw no-one was actually in the cars. Our final sight of the day was a large statue of Justice sat atop a huge column in a square which we reached by crossing the bridge before Ponte Vecchio. We then lost ourselves along the narrow winding streets of Florence, not a good time when Wolfie was desperate for the toilet, but we got back soon enough and soon he was relieved. It was a bit of a shame really as getting lost in Florence's atmospheric cobbled streets has been one of the highlights of our stay as there's always a new surprise to see, a bridge over the road, an impressive church just snuggling amongst the houses or an interesting shop that is out of the way. I love cities like this, steeped in history yet unpredictable and as I say I was incredibly sad to leave and head back to Rome on Friday evening.
So back to the Uffizi Gallery, where we spent four and a half hours inside the former government offices and mint (Uffizi means offices in Italian). We would have spent longer but we had another prior arrangement at 4pm at another gallery so we only stayed as long as we could. Built in the second half of the sixteenth century, by Vasari, this building eschews the green-white-pink theme of the Duomo and other buildings in favour of a more traditional brown in brick. It flanks both sides of the Piazzale degli Uffizi and bridges over it on the side of the Arno River which is to its south. This is one of the most famous and important galleries in the world, with the Medici rulers being particularly fond of and huge patrons of the arts. Some of the paintings are the very cream of Italian and European art from the thirteenth to the eighteenth centuries, with a few very famous examples too. These include Botticelli's Birth of Venus which depicts Venus being carried to shore in a half-shell and a few works from Leonardo da Vinci including The Baptism of Christ, which was undertaken largely with his teacher Verrocchio. Only the angel and background were Da Vinci's work, who was 18 at the time, but its quality was such that his teacher swore never to paint again. There hands were actually involved in this painting and you can spot the according differences in style. The Annunciation and the Adoration of the Magi are his other works. There are also works by Cimabue, Giotto, Hugo van der Goes, Albrecht Durer, Titian and Michaelangelo, with the greater sculptor having turned to painting with his round oil offering Doni Tondo of 1503 to 1505. There were also some paintings from Rembrandt, including portraits and self-portraits in the blue rooms dedicated to non-Italian artists while the red rooms of Italian painters introduced me to a few I had not known of before and reacquainted me with others from other galleries I had been to. At the end of the red rooms there is a large area dedicated to Rafael, including a self-portrait and his famous Madonna del Cardellino. I do love touring art galleries as I feel I'm close to greatness whenever I view these paintings, particularly those which are famous or well-known. As I have said before, it may sound pretentious but it's a genuine privilege to see these paintings up close, even if many of them are now sadly behind shatter proof glass. This is partly due to a mafia bomb which destroyed part of the gallery in 1993, killing five people in the process. Fortunately I think only two works were damaged beyond repair and the vast majority which were damaged were successfully restored. It was either that or the incident in 1966 when Florence was severely overwhelmed by flooding and many works of art were destroyed. Indeed destruction has been a common theme in the history of the Uffizi as the gallery was also partly destroyed by the Germans in 1944. Some of the beautiful frescos still bear witness to this, with greyness replacing the coloured imagery. In one of the rooms, there is a beautiful fresco depicting Florence after German shelling in August of that year, which I think is a poignant and telling juxtaposition in paintwork and a building which is so much older and has survived the onslaught of that destructive war.
Some of the rooms in the Uffizi were closed, with the collections being moved elsewhere but we got to see most of it, even if the last one quarter was somewhat rushed. We also didn't get chance to view the temporary exhibitions and we could easily have spent a whole day there, but we squeezed in what we could. The Tribuna was another highlight, an octagon shaped room of deepest red commissioned by the Medici from Bernardo Buontalenti. The stone table taking centre stage in the room is from the seventeenth century and took 16 years to make. Paintings adorn all eight walls which represent the four seasons and while you cannot access the room directly anymore, you can see into it from three sides. The red domed roof replete with thousands of golden orbs is the real highlight though, a truly magnificent creation. It's not all paintings in the Uffizi, there are many sculpted figures too out of stone and marble, many of which dating back to the late Roman period. It's mindboggling to think how all this survived for so long, with many of the statues laying dormant underground for thousands of years. Their features are so strong though and the cut of the marble, particularly with the coloration, really adds to their power. These were interspersed down both of the main corridors on either side of the square and gave a welcome break to the paintings. The engaging audio guide also helped but being completists we did try to learn about every numbered painting and sculpture, which must have been about one in four of them.
With dogs barking, another welcome break was the cafeteria where we grabbed an expensive sandwich in delicious sweetened bread while being pestered by tamed sparrows and pigeons. Indeed you could just feed your crumbs to them and they had the audacity to climb up to the table to steal your crumbs, with one of them even biting into my sandwich! And that was puppy's sandwich!! On this roof terrace we got a nice view of the square and the dome of the Duomo - above which no building can be built in the city - and lamented that on such a sunny day we were stuck indoors.
Sadly this was to remain the case as we had booked a further visit, this time to the Galleria dell'Accademia at the other end of town. We were pushed for time, having been so absorbed by the Uffizi Gallery, but fortunately Florence is quite a small city and the Galleria was only a 15 minute walk away. They also weren't being too strict on times so being five minutes late wasn't a problem. There are two main highlights in the Galleria, both by Michaelangelo. The principle one is the statue of David, arguably the most famous statue in the world, which used to grace the Piazza Della Signoria. It was moved here on railway tracks in 1873 to be displayed in this purpose built room, shaped like a Latin crucifix with David posed in the middle of the cross. You walk up to it on the long axis meaning it dominates your view for many metres and it only gets better the closer you get to it, with the colour of the marble complementing the subject and the attention to detail, including bulging neck muscles and veins in the hand being extraordinary. Aiding this was the extensive cleaning the marble underwent in 2004. Commissioned in 1501 when Michaelangelo was just 26, it is clear to see why this is considered a masterpiece. The sling is deliberately small to highlight the youth and power of David and this adds to the overall effect of the piece for me. The lustre of the marble gleams blue not grey and to see it in real life made me appreciate just how good it is. You can get a look at every angle of the piece and it is incredibly difficult to describe. Even superlatives fail me.
The power of David means you almost ignore four other works from Michaelangelo which adorn this long axis of the cross. The Prisoners was a project initially commissioned but then abandoned halfway through but it does provide a metaphor for the great master's work. These figure are only barely cut away from the block of marble from which they came, demonstrating Michaelangelo's ability to cut out the figures as if they were already inside. This philosophy is an interesting one and is enhanced by the theme as only the front portion of the Prisoners has been cut from the stone, it does look like they have been imprisoned inside as if petrified.
To be continued...