Dave and Melissa

The Honeymooners

A year ago on the Fourth of July, we were at Rick Calou's barbeque and were talking with Dave and Melissa Short about our upcoming sojourn to Italy.  They already had plans for a European honeymoon a year from then, and we invited them to drop by.  They became the first of our friends to sign up to visit us--a year in advance!  And as booked, they arrived on July 2 for a short two-day visit.  We had not yet been back to the Uffizi since our Italy trip nine years ago, so we decided it was time to go back to one of the great art museums of the world, and Dave and Melissa agreed.  

We started on the second floor, medieval and Renaissance paintings.  There are so many great paintings, the selection here is based more on which photos turned out decently than anything else.

Adoration of the Magi from the 15th century, done by two painters (Monaco and Rosselli) about 50 years apart.

Look familiar?  The Birth of Venus by Botticelli.  The black bars stand off the protective plastic sheet in front of the painting.  For this painting in particular, the plastic seems to darken the picture.

The Uffizi has a lot of Botticellis.  From what I remember nine years ago, I was not all that impressed then.  This time I think that because of the chronoIogical ordering, I was more aware of just how much Botticelli had moved beyond the artists before him.  Botticelli was truly great, and taking away nothing from Botticelli's genius, you next come upon this by an unsurpassed genius:

 The Annunciation by Leonardo da Vinci, the quintessential Renaissance Man.

Part way down this first wing, you come to the Tribuna, an octagonal room with some statues and paintings inside that you can only view from three blocked doorways.  The amazing thing about this room is the domed and glassed ceiling that illuminates it.  The dome is inlaid with thousands of sea shells with the inner mother-of-pearl side facing out.  This is a really tough photo to take, virtually straight up while hanging in one of the doorways:

Coming around the corner halfway through the second floor, the windows offer a great view of the River Arno and the Ponte Vecchio:

We had lunch at the museum cafe on the rooftop terrace, with views of the Duomo and the Palazzo Vecchio.

After lunch, it was on to the third floor and works from the sixteenth century.  The crown jewel from this period is The Venus of Urbino by Titian.

Do you remember the bronze Cinghale statue in the Nuovo Mercato?  Rubbing its nose ensures that you will return to Florence.  Dave and Melissa are coming back.  So are a lot of other people, judging by the polish on the nose.

And after a hard day of being a tourist, it is nice to relax with a glass of wine in the garden.