Florence. the cradle of the Rennaisance

'It was a pre-dawn start on our long day of travel involving planes, trains and automobiles....but we all reached our destinations safely. After a long, windy, hairpin drive down to Venice from the mountains (which seemed to glow, eerily magnificent in the light of an almost full moon) Michael and Wendy flew to Dublin and we caught the fast train to Florence. It was comfortable enough in first class, watching the landscape slip by.....still foggy in the afternoon low sun. Across the aisle were two American  "Baby Boomer" couples (loud but not offensive) re-living their youthful back-packing days according to Wendy....because they were struggling under the weight of their flash, bulging packs!

Florence from the Michelangelo gardens on our fine day...but brisk!

It was a fairly gloomy afternoon but we spent it on a reconnoitre of the city, getting our bearings and stretching our legs....and finding stuff around every corner.

Cakes, cakes and more cakes....and mountains of gelato....mmmmmmm!

We are fairly centrally located in the Hotel Hugo (only five flights of stairs up) and found the famous cathedral with that magnificent Brunellesci dome just down the street past all the restaurants. We were overwhelmed with all the museums and "points of interest" as we found or way past the Ponte Vecchio to the Christmas markets in the Santa Croce plaza!

The Ponte Vecchio from the Ponte St. Trinita......early morning.

Santa Croce markets. We lunched there on the second day.....kebab awful, wurst repeated on us and the churro was potato.....which we put cinnamon on!

We made it an early night (earlier than usual!) as we were both dog tired and I wanted to be up bright and early for my two hour personal photo tour (which was a birthday present from Nick, Erin and Cindy) the next day.

Unfortunately rain intervened  so we made the most of our time visiting just a few of the dozens of museums and churches on offer waiting for the weather to improve. 

We had known that it was going to be a public holiday long weekend during our stay in  Florence but, we had no idea, and I mean not a clue about how large and closely packed the crowds would be. The pushing and shoving, the absolute lack of personal space in the seething, flowing tide of humanity threatened to carry us far from where we were planning to go.......and those umbrellas....I don't how many times we almost had an eye "put out!"

The crowds on the wet public holiday weekend. We got separated a couple of times and Wendy said she just got "swept away" ...like she was in a rip or something!

Christmas lights in the rain. The city is crowded but well decorated and the rain, although a nuisance, sort of adds to the atmosphere.

The line into the Uffizi museum for the 2.00 pm session (for which we had diligently purchased tickets) snaked around the corner, across the square and up a small lane .......what the $&@:,,""£%##! How many tickets for 2.00pm had they sold??!!

So, ....nothing to do but get ourselves into a small guided tour ......and it turned out to be a really good decision. It was one of the most informative, educational and entertaining tours we have ever been on, led by an Art History teacher from New York....and she was brilliant!

The main hall of the Uffizi

We were immersed in the history of Florence from Roman times and the influence of the Medici family on the Renaissance. The museum has one of the world's finest collections of the expression of this rediscovery of realistic and natural art forms from the Greeks and Romans that had been lost in Medieval times.

An example of Byzantine art. Religious theme & flat....no real dimension.

We were treated to very detailed explanations of Byzantine art and the development of the Rennaisance through the work Brunesceli, Raphaelo, Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci amongst a host of others too numerous to remember. She demonstrated with illustrations and examples how they used perspective and changes in colour to achieve depth and realism in their works of art signifying an important change in thinking of the time....a more realist approach. And she also entertained us with stories of the human dimensions of their lives including reneging on contracts, plagiarising other artists' work, contracting syphilis .....and the like.

Botticelli's "The birth of Venus"

The Annunciation by Leonardo da Vinci....who actually preferred engineering and making huge weapons of war to painting. He was, it seems, a bit ADHD and often lost interest in a project leaving many unfinished pieces of work....and 15000 pages of drawings and notes! 

The Medici Duke's Private collection- wealth and power.

The fact that we were actually seeing original artworks, sculptures and architecture dating from the 13th and 14th Centuries was quite overwhelming and we were very conscious of the fact that we were witnessing the work of true geniuses.....well ahead of their time and understandings of their society. It did occur to me that Apple has something to answer to, de-valuing the currency of that word with their so called "Genius Bars".......I don't think so!

This is genius!

I did eventually have my "Private Photographic Tour of Florence" on the Friday, even though the heavens continued to open on us. Eva was an excellent tutor and her insights into composition, timing and lense choice for architectural photography was very insightful, especially in an old, tight city like Florence. I was able to "pick her brains" regarding not only her secret photo spots in Florence but also some techniques and settings she uses in low light photography and the couple of hours just flew by. 
I'm glad I jotted down some of her words of wisdom to use later on in Amsterdam and Iceland where the lighting will be....well, challenging.