Galileo Museum

When we read about this museum, located near the Uffizi on the River Arno, we weren't sure how high it would be on our list of things to see. But yesterday we decided to go there. The two floors of scientific displays were more than amazing. I like to think I am not completely ignorant of scientific principles, but there were few items that I could understand at all. However, it was all interesting. We should be very grateful to these early scientists for the beginnings of our understanding of the world. And although it is called the Galileo Museum, the majority of items were not directly related to him, but were collections by the Medici and the later Lorraines.

The first thing we saw was this large perpetual calendar. I've no idea how it worked, but it was beautiful.

There was a good section on maps and globes (these I can understand). It was interesting that there were often two globes side by side: one showing the earth and one the heavens.

This giant armillary sphere almost filled one small room. It had a smaller earth globe in the center.

In a later scientific section, there were plaster casts of babies in the womb in all imaginable positions. These were used for teaching obstetrics. No photos!

This is a complete chemistry lab enclosed in a desk. There were many flasks and other items that would be used in a chem lab.

Some very early microscopes.

A bust of Galileo.

And, one of the salient points in the advertising of this place, the display of Galileo's fingers. Three of them, including a thumb. I still haven't quite figured out the desire to preserve these bones for veneration. But they are interesting to see!

Santa Maria Novella Farmacia

On Tuesday we set off to find the ancient pharmacy that was run by the Dominicans attached to the Santa Maria Novella church. It went private in 1866, but is in a building attached to the cathedral cloister. It is a high-end perfumery. (Generally not my thing, as I am sensitive to scents.) It also has creams, soaps, etc.

The entry way was striking, with masses of foliage hanging. It was nice, even if it was fake.

The first room was a small sacristy with all four walls covered with frescoes, mostly depicting the life of Jesus. I was struck by this unusual depiction of the Last Supper, with a round table. Notice that in both pictures Judas has a black halo and dark robes.

The ceiling of the main room, which was once a chapel, has allegorical frescoes of the four continents. And a crystal chandelier.

All of the rooms (not that many) were beautifully decorated.

This hanging perfume bottle on display was designed by Dolce and Gabbana. It says Caterina in gold.

At the room farthest from the entry, we could look into the cloister courtyard of the cathedral, right where we had walked a couple of weeks before.

Museum of the Innocents

The Ospedale degli Innocenti was designed by Brunelleschi in 1419 as an orphanage for abandoned children. It functioned for over 400 years. Della Robbia created the porcelain medallions of babies that line the facade below Brunelleschi's loggia. It was hard to imagine this place with all the children, wet-nurses and other personnel. Up to 1000 babies per year were left here.

At the far end of the veranda is the window where abandoned babies could be left. 

The first section in the tour had much information about the history of the institution. There were many small drawers that contained items left with abandoned babies. It was common to leave half of a broken item of jewelry or some other potentially identifying item.

The main courtyard inside. On the upper left is the back side of the loggia seen from the front.

We climbed up to the top level to see the loggia from the inside. The rafters were beautiful. There was a lot of art on display here.

A glazed terra cotta by Della Robbia shows the Annunciation with many babies watching.

Pictures of babies were everywhere. This sculpture shows the swaddling that was common to be sure the babies' limbs grew straight.

This fresco fragment shows the Madonna nursing the Christ child, an uncommon depiction, but suitable for this place that had many, many wetnurses.

There also happened to be a special Lego show in the building. There were huge dioramas of things like cityscapes, pirate coves, and space stations. But this one of the facade of the Santa Croce church caught my eye. Yes, these are Legos!

Flea Market

Dan returned from his early morning walk and told me there was a flea market set up at PIazza Indipendenza. That's the one with the trees that I posted about a few weeks ago. 

There were booths all around the perimeter of the park. We walked through the entire thing. There were lots of interesting things, but overall it was much like a flea market in the U.S. However, all the book stalls had books only in Italian. I was a little tempted by some opera scores in piano education.

Sculptures?

Interesting huge world map

The street signs are stone tablets high on the walls at the intersections. However, they are not always there. And a street might have more than one name as it wends its way. 

The steps surrounding San Lorenzo are a popular place to sit, especially on a sunny warm day. During the week it' like this, rather sparse. On the weekends there are tons of people around. 

Many buildings have these large rings embedded in the walls. This one is unusual that it is on a corner. They were installed for tying up horses back in the day.

Around the Duomo

The other day I took a walk and ended up completely circling the Duomo. (It does keep drawing me back.) The outside is interesting in many ways. It is covered in white, green, and pink marble.

I started at the the Giotto Bell Tower, which stands completely alone off the side of the front entrance. I've pictured the front before, so it isn't here today.

The next three photos are of the area above the doorways on the sides. Each is different with a variety of sculptures and even paintings.  The one with the Annunciation painting is the entrance door for climbing the tower. The last time we were here we didn't realize that, but thought it was the entrance to tour the cathedral. Once we got in there was no option other than to climb, so we did it. That's not happening on this visit.

A massive cleaning of the facade is going on. Here you can see the part where they are working, with the cleaned part to the left and the dirty part to the right.

In this photo you can see the clean area along the side and the dirty part surrounding the dome. I suspect this is a multi-year job. The back side of the church is especially dirty.

Uffizi Gallery Part Two

Of course there are so many, many paintings and sculptures on display that it is impossible to remember or post most of them. I have tried to choose some of the ones that I particularly liked or that stood out in some way. Fortunately, each item had a placard telling the artist and something about the piece. I usually took a picture of both the card and the painting so I could remember what it was.

I said I didn't take many pictures of the Greek and Roman statues, but this sleeping cupid in black marble caught my eye.

The Tribune is an octagonal room that was designed to display jewels and other artifacts for Francesco I de' Medici in the late 16th century. It has been beautifully restored and is a jewel itself. There are three doorways through which you can look, but no one is allowed to enter.

This unusual drawing is by Bellini, of the Lamentations over the Body of Christ.

Clearly, paintings of the Madonna and Child abound. These three were very interesting. The first is by Botticelli, and is called the Madonna of the Pomegranate, because she is holding one.

This one, also by Botticelli (is there a theme here?) is the Madonna of the Magnificat. She has a book open before her. In the Bible, she speaks the prayer after being told of the coming of Christ. But maybe she repeated it after he was born. (And how wonderful that she could read a Medieval manuscript!)

This one is by Michelangelo. I had been looking forward to seeing it again. It is his only documented panel painting, commissioned by a merchant. The figures cavorting in the background are obviously inspired by classical sculpture. One of the things we noticed throughout the museum was how the Italian painters used their own scenery as backgrounds in almost all their works.

This is Botticelli's most famous painting, the Birth of Venus. I could not get a shot of it, so copied this one from Wikipedia. When you look at her face, you will realize you see the same woman in many of his paintings.

And last but not least, is probably my favorite painting of all time. It's not a very good shot, but I love the figures of the women and the forest scene. The title is Primavera (Spring). When we were here a few years ago, I purchased a copy about double-postcard size and I like to take it out and look at it.

During high tourist season, the Uffizi is very crowded, and it is advisable to purchase timed tickets ahead of time to avoid very long lines. We didn't do that, and had no wait at all. There were people throughout, but it never felt crowded. (I missed photographing one painting I wanted to get because a young man was standing right in front and didn't move for a very long time. Oh, well.)

Uffizi Gallery Part One

We knew the Uffizi Gallery would be one of the highlights of our time in Florence. We have been there twice before -- in 1971 with a two-year-old, and in 2015 when we were here for week. The amount of beautiful art is amazing. Have you heard of Stendahl Syndrome? (a psychosomatic condition involving rapid heartbeat, fainting, confusion and even hallucinations, allegedly occurring when individuals become exposed to objects, artworks, or phenomena of great beauty and antiquity. -- Wikipedia) No, I didn't have it, but I began to understand how one could succumb!

The Uffizi (offices of the Medici) is a huge building with three floors. It is actually two buildings with a street between, but the upper floors are connected by a hallway. The main artworks are on the top floor (second, or third in American-speak), and the tour starts there. The hallways were long and lavishly decorated, as you can see here. Each panel of the ceiling was painted differently. Along the top of the walls were portraits -- there must have been hundreds all together. The halls were lined with Roman statues and some Greek.

This picture is of the ceiling at the end of the hallway.

This is the only picture I took of the hallway statuary. It is Hercules and the Centaur.

These four pictures are by Lorenzetti in the early 14th century. They are stories from the life of St. Nicholas.

Uccello's Battle of San Romano is full of energy.

Botticelli is one of my all-time favorite artists. This portrait, Fortitude, is his first recorded work. The young woman is wearing armor under her clothes.

This Annunciation by Botticelli is a wall painting from a hospital loggia. It indicates what the interior of an aristocratic residence would have looked like.

Tomorrow: More from the Uffizi

Miscellany

Last week we went to an Indian restaurant just a few blocks away. The food was decent and we enjoyed it. The people running it were from the Punjab. We have seen quite a few people from South Asia around; the laundromat guy is from Bangladesh. This isn't a very good picture, but it was fitting that the wall of the restaurant had frescos, or something like them, but with Indian scenes. Sorry about the lighting. The ceiling rafters were covered with fabric.

For several weeks, we have seen a homeless man sleeping on the loggia (veranda) in front of the stores we can see from our window. Each morning around 7:00 he would rise, fold up his blankets, put them into a large tote bag, and walk off. I've wondered what his story is. This week he has disappeared. I hope it means he has a better place to stay.

Standing on that same loggia, I took this photo looking up at our building. On the left is the corner building that has a leather shop on the ground floor. The cream-colored building is ours. There are three levels of apartments and we are in the middle. Our eating area overlooks the street and it is constantly interesting. I don't think there is anyone staying on the top floor; we haven't seen or heard anyone coming or going. The one below us has a South Asian man I've seen once or twice, but no chance to chat.

Monday we decided to take it easy after a fairly strenuous day out on Sunday. It was rainy and I only got out for a short walk. We had decided to go to the Uffizi on Tuesday, but it was raining fairly steadily and we put it off to Wednesday (as I write this, we have just returned). So we had another lazy day.

This is a cornetto, the Italian version of a croissant. It is common to have them for breakfast, but we only do that when we are not in our apartment. This one was for dessert; it is filled with chocolate!

Tomorrow:  the Uffizi Gallery.