Walking Around Florence, This Time With a Tour Guide

I got up early this morning at 6:30, had a yogurt for breakfast, and then went off to meet the SACI field trip group outside the Accademia museum. We did not actually go into the Accademia (which is too bad because I still haven't been in there), but instead started off going to the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, the museum of hard stone work. I probably wouldn't have even known about this museum if not for this field trip, so it was interesting at least for that reason.

The museum is on the smaller side, and it has a bunch of examples of stone art things and some explanation of how the stone things were/are made.

Bird!

More birds!

Picture frames and stuff.

A whole cabinet full of birds!

Only you can stop florist friars.

The Teletubby baby sun.

This is not actually a cabinet, but a painting of a cabinet.

A display of the stones used in the stone work.

Hard stone crafting tables.

Stone things with flowers. They look like paintings.

Pretty table.

Hyper realistic grapes that are actually made of, you got it, stone.

After that museum, we walked to the nearby Opera del Duomo Museum. I had been to this museum a couple weeks ago for drawing class, but that time I didn't bring a camera with me. So this time I was all set to take pictures!

In front of the replica of the Duomo facade.

The Cathedral doors.

More doors.

Here there was a glass floor to look down into old ruins beneath the floor. A bit disconcerting to know the ground isn't actually solid beneath you.

Michelangelo's unfinished Pieta. I spent a couple hours drawing this thing a couple weeks ago. 

Donatello's Mary Magdalene, starved and dressed only in her own hair.

One of Donatello's statues to decorate the Duomo. He's known as Pumpkin Head because he's bald. Poor guy.

This is supposed to be Daedalus, but I think it just looks a bit silly.

A model of Brunelleschi's dome, suspended from the ceiling.

Proof I was there holding the camera.

Some models of construction equipment Brunelleschi invented to get the dome built.

Brunelleschi's proposed model for the duomo. I thought it was interesting.

And this is Brunelleschi's death mask. It's a little creepy.

Super fancy silver altar. This church has mucho dinero.

Most of the stuff in this museum I already wrote about last time I was here, so I won't retype it. It was nice to have a person explain all the things, though.

When we walked back outside, it had started heavy-duty raining, and I had neither an umbrella or heavy jacket on me. I shared an umbrella with a friend, but my tennis shoes got completely soaked. I really should have packed some kind of rain boot.

Rain outside the museum. Fewer tourists here!

 The next stop was the church of San Michele Visdomini, where there was what is known as the Pucci altarpiece, painted by Pontormo. Pontormo is an artist known for his Mannerist style, which is post-Renaissance and sort of surreal and modern. I honestly don't really care for Pontormo's paintings, but the art history teacher seems to think a lot of them. Anyways, the church had a place to sit, so that was nice.

Pontormo's altarpiece. Jesus is the star of this show.

 On the way to the next location, we walked through the Baptistery next to the Duomo. I had also been there before (on the same day I went to the Opera del Duomo Museum), so not much new here.

I took a picture of this place before, but here's another one.

Onward to the San Felicita church, located across the Ponte Vecchio, the main touristy bridge that goes across the Arno. The streets around the bridge were absolutely packed, and combined with all the rain it made walking very chaotic. But I reached the church ok and saw another Pontormo painting. Pontormo was the theme of the day.

Pontormo's Entonement of Christ, hiding behind chapel gates. In order to see the painting, you have to put a euro into a machine, and then the surrounding lights turn on. The lights go off after around 3 minutes. This church has got to make a lot of money off art history tours.

 And from there we went back across the Arno to the Piazza Signoria, the piazza area near the Palazzo Vecchio, right next to my apartment, where the David copy and a Neptune fountain are. I've already taken pictures of all those statues, so I didn't this time, but I learned a lot more about what all the different sculptures are and how the piazza looked during the different centuries.

At 12:30 or thereabout we stopped for lunch. Since I was literally a minute away from my apartment, I walked with a friend over there and made some pasta. Nothing too exciting food-wise, but I did collect my big poofy jacket that became my traveling companion for the rest of the day. At 1:45 we then walked back to the piazza and actually went into the palace of the Palazzo Vecchio, where I had not been before. First there were some nice maps:

A painting (reproduction, actually) of medieval Florence. What's cool is that I recognize a lot of the places now.

Another old map.

 Then we went further into the palace, a place that used to be owned by the Medici. Lots of Medici symbolism everywhere, and there were entire areas of the building devoted to specific family members. Again, it must have been nice to be a Medici.

Here was the inside of Francesco I's alchemy office. The entire interior is covered in paintings representing the four elements (earth, air, fire, water), and there's secret passageways hidden behind some of the paintings.

Another view of the alchemy office.

A secret passage. Not so secret now.

Gigantic paintings that span the wall, all depicting famous battles. It is suspected that there is a Leonardo da Vinci painting behind this current painting, but no one wants to take the thing apart to check.

Nice ceiling.

Victory, another Michelangelo sculpture. Also an exit sign.

This ceiling is entirely dedicated to Cosimo I. I'm not sure I would personally like a ceiling in my house that had my face plastered everywhere, but that's just me.

The Palazzo Vecchio, way back in the middle ages. The buildings look the same!

Here's a Madonna and child. But no ordinary Madonna and child! What's that next to Mary's head?

My bet is that's a UFO.

The view from the palace window. Still rainy.

More view.

That's me!

A view of the Salone dei Cinquecento (the room with the battle paintings and Michelangelo statue) from the upstairs balcony.

Dante's death mask. They liked making these death mask things in Italy.

 We were also supposed to see Donatello's Judith at the palace, but there was some kind of event going on and a whole part of the museum was roped off. Not sure if it's related, but they're having the premiere of the Dan Brown Inferno movie in Florence, and apparently Tom Hanks and the Italian prime minister are all coming to attend the event. Sadly, neither SACI nor USC has gotten us invitations.

After the Palazzo Vecchio museums, we walked to a nearby bus stop to catch a bus to Certosa di Galluzzo, a monastery about 15 minutes away from central Florence. The monastery is at the top of a hill.

There it is! Note all the green. Lots of trees here, unlike central Florence which has no trees at all.

A view from the stairs up to the monastery. I took a lot of pictures of the countryside.

Inside the monastery. In the middle ages the monks here took a vow of silence, but today they'll talk to you and give tours.

Many stairs.

Nice view from the stairs. The sky was starting to clear up.

Inside the monastery. Those are more Pontormo paintings on the wall, but they were mostly faded out. There are oil paintings on the far wall that may depict what the Pontormo's used to look like.

Monastery courtyard.

Very tall ceiling.

This is a painting of a monk who has accidentally chopped off his finger. It reminded me of the SNL Julia Child skit.

The monastery chapel. It was BIG.

A courtyard. 

Me and the courtyard.

Wait here's another picture of the same thing.

And another!

Pretty colors.

They've got bees here. The honey ends up in the gift shop, where they sell all sorts of monkish products.

 After going through the monastery, we made our way back down the hill and to the bus stop.

Ice Age seems to be popular here, but I have no explanation for why Scrat is wearing a space suit.

I got off the bus before the rest of the class because it was closer to my apartment. On the walk back, I stopped at Conad and got some dinner supplies, and at the apartment I made myself a very tasty omelette.

Top Chef, here I come.

Then I started typing this thing up, and that took a while because the internet is super slow and pictures take way too long to upload. Now I think it's sleep time.