Uffizi Gallery

Cave Bear skeleton

"mother" figures in rock and bone

"Bones Mummy - take a picture"

Inscribed pictures

This afternoon we visited 3 museums. The first was the Museo di Preistoria which is a very small museum tucked in behind the Duomo in the same building as the Oblate library. Unfortunately all the signs were in Italian - so I took some photographs of some of the things I photographed and will translate later. But, the best I can make out it was a museum that contained artefacts from a number of dig sites dating back to around the last ice age. Anyway - Jacob was beside himself because there were "Bones" everywhere - he wasn't must interested in the pieces of pottery, bone awls, inscribed pictures, stone axes, arrow heads etc - just the bones! They had skeletons and skulls, animals and human. By far in away the best was the full complete Cave Bear skeleton! FOr those of you who have read Jean Auel's Clan of the Cave Bear Series there was a lot of familiar stuff in this museum from the drawings / explanations given in the forwards of those books.

mosaic tile work

From the outside of the Duomo

Michelangelo's Pieta

This was sculpted by Donatello

Close up of some panels that were related to the balcony above

After this we went to the Museo dell'Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore - the museum containing all the relics that have been removed from the Duomo. This wasn't planned, but the Prehistoric museum was so small, so we had time. I'll let the pictures speak here - one part of the museum was closed as they are redoing the main courtyard area - but it was great anyway. The main piece is Michelangelo's Pieta (which I could touch!) that he began when he was nearly 80 for his own tomb, giving his own face to Nicodemus. He shattered a part of it because of an imperfection in the marble and never completed it - the imperfection was fixed by Tiberio Calcagni - through Francesco Bandini. But it remains unfinished because of the deaths of all three. Also on currently was an exhibition whose name translates to "The silver cross and altar of the treasury of Saint John. These were made between 1367 and 1480 and contain more than 2000 little pieces that add up to more than 250kg of silver metal. Their restoration has only just been completed.

The silver cross and altar (in background) of St John

Close up detail on part of the cross

Etching on the base of the cross

This was also in the collection - each picture is about 2 x2 inches

This is a closeup through the magnify glass they had on the sister panel to above. It isn't really clear but the pictures are a combination of etching, and mosaic with tiny tiny pieces (flecks) of metal.

In the same collection

You can see the detail / mosaic from the picture above. You could see these with the naked eye easily, but not so the one before.

The silver altar

Close up of Jesus from the centre of the altar

There were lots of these guys on the altar - to put the work in perspective each man was about 2 inches tall.

After this we had early dinner in Piazza Signori, watching all the people go past. We then headed to the Uffizi - now normally this place is packed - people are generally hanging around the Piazza waiting for their pre-booked time, as even the reservation line is usually quite long. My sincere apologies to anyone who has had to stand in that line - but we walked straight through! It was about 6.15pm (gallery opens until 10pm on Tues nights during summer) and we walked straight through the door to security and then had to wait in a ticket line where we were the 3rd group. From there we made our way up - and it was not busy, so sometimes we were the only people in the room! Unfortunately no pictures - there were staff everywhere so not even a sneaky picture could be had! I will say that there is just so much beautiful inspiring art in that building. Anyway, the evening finished with gelato as usual. It was a late one for the boys and we have a big day tomorrow - we head off to Verona for the day - it is the longest trip by train (2hrs one way) that we will take while we are here.

Dinner view - that is Palazzo Vecchio behind Jacob 

This was the rather interesting Margarita Spritz that I had.

On the staircase up to the Uffizi exhibits.