Sunday, April 14, 2002 12:52
Weather: Partly cloudy... and partly rainy.
Location: Fiaschetteria restaurant

My bad. No journal entry for yesterday so I have some catching up to do.

I woke up bright and early yesterday and was actually the very first to arrive at the Uffizi museum. Since I hadn't yet eaten, I wandered around the block and stopped at a couple of cafés, where I picked up cappucinos and a croissant. I sat in the outdoor Loggia della Signoria, a covered open air statuary display to one side of the Piazza della Signoria, from where I could keep an eye on the line at the Uffizi, and once a few people had gathered I knew where to go and joined them.

As I was about number eight in line, I had no trouble getting into the museum, despite its strict limits on the number of guests in at any one time. On top of the €8 entry charge, I paid €2 for an illustrated map and another €4.50 for an audio guide, which wasn't as good as the one at the Thyssen-Bournemisza in Madrid but was still interesting. All told, it took me about 4 hours to work through the Uffizi's impressive collection, whose quality level is extraordinary, though its display area is not as massive as those of the Prado, the Met, or some of the other great museums of the world.

After lunch I picked up my tour at the Palazzo Pitti, a massive palace on the hill to the south of the city, across the river. I went around the royal apartments, which were piled high with paintings and objects d'art. In comparison to the Medici's Uffizi collection, the Pitti clearly represented the triumph of ridiculous wealth over good taste, particularly the ceilings, painted with frescoes of the Hapsburgs being crowed by angels and the trials of Hercules, for example. Not that the paintings were bad, mind--they surely represented the best money could buy at the time, which is saying a lot--but they went in for a lot of tasteless 'victory over the poor' and 'glory the rich' themes, along with the standard collection of religious art, though with rather scantier clothing than was, perhaps, justified.

While I finished my tour of the Pitti, a sharp rain shower started up. When it came time to decide what to do next, this made things difficult. I'd just decided to give up on the palace's gardens in favour of trying to make a 4pm concert at the Teatro la Pergola when the rain stopped. I changed course and went to the gardens after all. Of course, just after I'd fully committed to this strategy and it was too late to make it to the concert, the rain started up again.

After the gardens (magnificent, huge, wet) I headed back across the river and stopped for an Internet fix (and to get out of the rain). When I emerged the rain had stopped.

Next, I wanted to find the Teatro and see about a ticket for the concert the following (Sunday) night. It was right next to an English language bookstore, so I picked up Nick Hornby's latest on my way past.

Again, I hit a box office that wouldn't sell me a ticket to a show the next day. (One wonders why they bother to have staff...)

Time for dinner: I found my way to a great little restaurant that was recommended to me by an American couple in Vernazza, the Osteria la Congrega (via Panicale 43). It wasn't cheap, but the food was very good, and after all of my mind-expanding walking I had a good appetite. I rolled home well fed and lubricated.

This morning I picked up a cappucino and croissant at Gilli and went to the 10:30 service in the Duomo. I expected a gold-encrusted, over-the-top palace of a place, but it was surprisingly austere inside, with mainly plain white walls, though the interior of the cupola has a wonderful fresco. The service was in Italian and Latin, but as it followed the same structure as the ones at St. Mary Magdalene's in Toronto I felt right at home and had no trouble keeping up. There was a small crowd--the building was only half filled with pews--but it was very nice.

Just before lunch I walked up to the Piazzale Michelangelo, up some steep stairs on the south side of the river, from where I had a great view of the city. Finally, back down to this little restaurant (Fiaschetteria) which has great food and very reasonable prices.

Now I just need to figure out what to do with my afternoon. I think maybe not too much more walking...
posted by Tom at 1:37 PM | link |