Tuesday, May 22, 2012

We were on our own until lunch so we set out after breakfast without any goal in mind.

Our first stop was the Duomo Museum and we had the place almost to ourselves. We saw another of Michelangelo’s Pietas, which he had envisioned for his own tomb. The face of Nicodemus is a self portrait of Michelangelo. Partway through the piece he found a flaw in the marble and destroyed part of it. The pieces have been rejoined, but the statue remains unfinished.

Also in the museum was St. John’s altar. It is a stunning piece and while we were there a cleaning was in progress. After seeing this woman cleaning with a q-tip I will never again complain about cleaning the silver. You might be able to see the q-tip in her hand.

After visiting the museum we thought we would like to see the Duomo but the line up was so long we changed our mind.

We walked down to the indoor market next. It is very much like our Granville Island market except larger, and each of the vendors are selling fresh merchandise – fish, fruit, veggies, and cheese. There didn’t appear to be any souvenir type shops which was a lovely respite from the streets.

A washroom trip was in order but they charged a few euro for it so, since we weren’t far away, we went back to the hotel.

Lunch was at a lovely restaurant down a back street. We had a bit of time before our next group tour so we strolled across the Ponte Vecchio and explored a bit on the other side of the Arno River. We found a market where the local people shop and stopped for dessert. I picked the caramel puff and it tasted as good as it looks.

The Uffizi Gallery was full of wonderful paintings. I recognized most of the paintings that were highlighted in our lecture yesterday, and some of them are even in the Art Puzzle app on my iPad. There were over 150 steps to get up to the top floor and, as you know, there were just as many steps down!

We thought we might make it to one of the churches for vespers, but by the time we finished at the gallery we were too late. We’ll catch it when we pass through Florence after we leave the group. We found a little wine bar that served free applies with your drink so we stopped and enjoyed the street life for a bit.

Starting in Rome people have been falling ill with coughs and colds. It is impossible to stay away from them so I’m eating lots of lemon. The lemon fruit here is so good I have no problem eating it off the small pieces they serve with tea and fish. Of course I’m not opposed to getting my Vitamin C in the form of lemon gelato or lemoncello!

Some of our group have had their heads messed on by the many pigeons that are around. I understood that it was good luck if that happened to you (go figure). Someone else thought the good luck came if you touched someone who had been splattered – that makes more sense.

We found a recommended restaurant very close to the hotel for dinner and after that we were ready to call it a day.

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