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After a sleep in and luggage repack (how did the bag fill up so quickly?), it was time for a breakfast cappuchino and sacher torte (they had run out of breakfast dolci). The strozzi palace is taking on the big gun art galleries by doing modern informative exhibitions. The one I saw today was the formative years of Picasso, miro and Dali, along with stories of how they came to discover their individual style, rebellion against the established art styles and also their families. Picasso was the trailblazer, and impacted the up and coming miro and Dali. The exhibition ended with a classic piece in the style that they each became famous for - Picasso complete deconstruction of form, Dali hyper photorealism and symbolism (think of those melting clocks) and miro simplistic and breaking all the rules with perspective.
For a complete change of pace, I then went to the duomo to see my first italian church. It is beautiful and I am so glad you can take photos in the church - they will not let you photograph any art here! The outside of the duomo is pretty amazing too but some of it is shrouded in necessary but ugly restoration scaffolding.
I needed a bottle opener (no screw tops here and no minibars at my budget) which got me searching for an alessi shop as I thought it might as well be stylish, so am the proud owner of the iconic parrot bottle opener and the hatted man boiled egg holder!
Lunch is in a little trattoria, yummy pesto gnocchi, and glass of wine. Before everyone thinks I have become a lush, wine is literally cheaper than water and good so why not! The trattoria is filled with Italians, and I am playing a game everywhere I go to see how long it takes before I get addressed in English or need to speak English, I get about half way through.
There is a lookout over the city that involves many steps and little shade but the view at the top was worth it. Florence is a beautiful city from up high but when you are at ground level it is hard to see where you are and it gets confusing.
I stopped at a drinking hole recommended by the lonely planet and there was a good selection of wines at good prices ( Tuscan viogner €4) But I think everyone else in there had also read the lonely planet and there were better places to go, with more atmosphere. I stopped at a local trattoria and had a salad and roast potatoes. I am missing my veges a bit, no wonder the girls wanted me to cook lots of vege based dishes. As good as the food is, the one advantage australia has over everywhere is that our diet is so varied and it is possible to get good representations of alot of different cuisines and easy access to the ingredients to cook them all!
This is my last night in Florence and I think I have seen and done everything I wanted to do, and got to see alot of the city. I have walked and walked, I can only hope I am counterbalancing the daily gelato and wine! Next stop - cinque terre and more walking!
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Jane Calories don't count when you're on holidays, remember? Cheers!